Second Chances

Second Chances

There is a growing industry that has sprung up all around the world. Certainly here in the UK, it has been established for some considerable time. Perhaps it is a sign of the times. Every charity has one over here. Manned usually by an army of really committed volunteers plus one or two paid staff, they provide a place where either the philanthropically minded, or the not so well off can obtain stuff they could not or would not normally pay the full retail prices for.

They are places where useful items, having served one term of usefulness, are given another chance, a second chance, to serve another person or family for another season. Known colloquially as ‘second hand shops’, these places prove invaluable resources for both charity and customers alike. The value to be obtained is often stunning – quite expensive items being sold for little more than pennies. All these pennies soon mount up and provide a good source of income for the charity as well as wonderful value for their customers.

So it is that, this new year, that our own charity shop, called Second Chance, takes on another lease of life, another second chance. Under “new management”, the shop and associated café will open to customers again on third January. Staffed by wonderful volunteer teams, the place is an outreach to our town, offering not just goods and food, but also prayer and advice, a listening ear and a sympathetic shoulder to lean, even cry on. Lord, please help us build a sanctuary, a place of hope, encouragement, and refreshing.

Isn’t, or perhaps shouldn’t, your church have or be a place like this? Should we all not offer to all the not-yet-Christians around us the same ‘second chance’ we were once offered. Should they not also have the opportunity to avail themselves of the companionship and relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ – just like we who are already Christians. We have seen so many folk who had no idea that God loves them personally. No idea they could actually have a relationship with God. No concept of God as a loving Father who cares intimately about their every moment of life – every situation in which they find themselves. Unless we tell them, these wonderful people will have no idea that God can and wants to heal and forgive them; that He actually truly deeply loves them.

Lord, please help us build a sanctuary, a place of hope, encouragement, and refreshing. Help us Lord to bring a second, third, fourth, or greater chance to your precious people in our town. Luke 6:31-33 “Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that.”