Second chances are powerful. A soccer game Friday afternoon, a women’s basketball game Friday night and a men’s basketball game Saturday afternoon all reminded me of a second chance I’m going through.

The soccer game was with my daughter’s team, and the two basketball games were with my alma mater. We won all three. I thought about some other things too that are impacting my second chance as well.

Writing, sleeping, stretching injuries and icing injuries also make second chances sweeter. Receiving an invite to the men’s basketball by a starter opens up hope as well. Never underestimate a simple invitation. Being invited makes anyone feel good. This world is constantly showing you where you don’t belong, and when a simple invite from a great basketball player shows up in your life you have to blog about it.

Life is hard for everyone. It’s hard for everyone I know. You get shut down daily by bullies, and even though our nation’s schools are cracking down on bully behavior it is still a reality for many.

Second chances don’t advertise themselves like AA, NA, SA, Celebrate Recovery or any other recovery group. Second chances happen in those meetings day after day, and I praise my Father in Heaven for working through those amazing recovery organizations. We need them, and we’ll always need them because people will always need second chances. But what I’ve discovered mostly is that second chances present themselves during a song, a church service, a basketball game, watching tv, sipping coffee at a coffeehouse, walking around the block, running or shooting the rock in the backyard.

One of those basketball players I saw play tonight posted a quote to his Twitter account I love.

Don’t be sad that it is over. Be happy that it happened.

We grieve, and we must grieve, but there has to come a time when we choose to be happy because of the good things that happen. I think that’s intrinsic to living fully into a second chance. We take two steps forward and one step back all the time. That’s called life. My Bisons did not hit all the shots they took this weekend in Allen Arena. When I’m shooting hoops I don’t hit all the shots I take. You can’t score a perfect 72 every time you hit the golf course. I love Scott Hamilton’s book Finish First for this very reason. We cannot expect to finish first if we don’t experience failure. No one makes it through life without fails. The thing that separates the winners and losers is those who don’t give up. You get a second chance every time you refuse to quit. There is no better lesson to learn in life than that. If it was easy everybody would do it.

If something is a fire in your bones don’t compromise by letting yourself or anybody else talk you out of it. When all is said and done, and the talking heads are silent what matters is the message you allow to take root between your own two ears. God has made that a reality for every last one of us. He has set in motion a beautiful thing that not one failure, person or shortcoming can stop. If your vision is strong enough, pure enough and will empower others to have hope don’t ever mock it. I think the people I’ve highlighted above under the blog link live this out daily. They know how important second chances are. And you know how they know how important they are?

They gave themselves permission to have a second chance.

You can too.