POTSC: I am Osama…and worse.
I’m so excited to share this brand new People of the Second Chance film called “Deep Dark Blackness.” It’s a time-lapse-fine-art video created by Jeremy Cowart, exclusively for POTSC.
And if you’re new, this film is what People of the Second Chance is all about!
Please take the four minutes and seven seconds required to watch this awesome video first.
What do you think?
I am sitting here, after watching the video for the first time, mere moments ago. My soul is quiet. I think I understand what David meant when he wrote “Selah” after a particularly meaty portion of the Psalms. I am having a Selah moment right now.
My soul is quiet…
…but my brain is in overdrive.
I guess that makes sense. My mind is the judgemental, critical, narcissistic, condescending portion of who I am.
My soul is merely saying, “Whew. That’s the modern-day Everyman. I’m that. We are all…that.“
And then my brain kicks in again. Revs the engine and screams, “WHAT?! You’re not Osama! You’re not Michael Vick! You’re not that sloppy drunk, Mel Gibson! They are ANIMALS! They are losers!”
And as I selah again, allowing my engine to cool, I hear the gracious yet convicting Spirit of God saying, “Yes, you are…that. Yet, you are none of that.”
I am Osama.
Just like Osama was given credit for the murder of thousands, I have murdered thousands with my hatred, my judgement, and my words. Jesus said if we hold hatred in our hearts, we are murderers. He also said that life and death are in the power of the tongue. Our words can destroy nations, our words can save lives, and our words can ruin the self-esteem of our neighbor. I am Osama…and worse.
I am Michael Vick.
Have I bet money on dog fights? No. But I have done things in secret, hoping no one else would find out. I belong in an eternal prison, because of my sin. Eternal damnation. Punishment forever: separated from God. I deserve to have my family and career stripped from me. I deserve death. I am Michael Vick…and worse.
I am Mel Gibson.
I am a sloppy drunk. First example: I got lost in a parking deck in an unfamiliar city, while my best friend and my wife searched for me for two very long hours. Drunk out of my mind. Feeling ten feet tall and bullet proof. Yelling at people and puking from the top of the parking deck, onto the sidewalk below. I’m a sloppy, nasty, out-of-control drunk. Second example: we were supposed to be celebrating my birthday and New Year’s, and I started drinking pomegranate flavored vodka. It was really good. So good that my face ended up in my birthday cake, my wife ended up with tear-filled eyes, and I ended up ejecting my birthday dinner and passed out in bed by 10pm. What a way to celebrate! I am Mel Gibson…and worse.
I am each of the aforementioned characters, and I am none of them.
I was given a second chance by my wife and a second chance times a gazillion by God. Because of radical grace, I am a brand-new creation. My old, shameful past has no hold on my present or my future, and every single day, I am walking in victory and freedom due to a SECOND CHANCE!
Scandalous grace.
Messy grace.
SLOPPY grace.
I am never beyond a second chance.
I am never beyond the out-stretched hand of Mercy.
There is nothing I can say or do that will separate me from the unconditional, never-ending love of God.
I am POTSC.
–Steve
GOD LOVES TEENAGERS!
P.S. I haven’t been drunk since that New Year’s episode. Sometimes, hitting rock bottom is the only way we stop and look up.
Today, will you give someone a second chance?
Maybe that someone is you.
About Steve Austin
I love this. I am so thankful that God, and the people I love and love me back, constantly give me grace. It’s an everyday thing, too. I do and say some not so great things, yet God never ceases to love me. I will never understand it.
Thanks for always being real.
Love you.
I second Judith…
I can’t live without that grace and I am very, very aware of what I’d look like and where I’d be. Thank you Jesus, you saved me from me. I’m undone and I’m head over heels in love with that love.
Without the LOVE that Sarah and Judith both mentioned, I would have quit a long time ago. I would have quit on people, on life, on love, and on myself. I’m so thankful that God has never and will never give up on me! Thanks for reading!
Glad to be POTSC with you, Steve. Not in spite of you being all of those scandalous characters, but because of it. I would hate to be all alone out here. Thanks for the second chance!