It’s been a long while since I’ve done a blog post for People of the Second Chance’s Never Beyond Series. I’ve been quite busy lately, but I must say that I’m happy to kick things off again with none other than the hater of Christmas himself, the Grinch!
This December, my church put on a production of Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” with a Christian spin to it. I played the show’s antagonist, the Mayor of Whoville, the man who hates the Grinch more than the Grinch hates Christmas. It was a ton of fun. Because of the play, I’ve had the Grinch’s story hammered into my brain for the past four months! And guess what…the Grinch fits right in with the people who deserve a second chance.
The Grinch is a crooked, jerky jockey that drives a crooked horse. He’s a creature you wouldn’t want to touch with a 39 1/2 foot pole. Anyone in their right mind would choose to hang out with a seasick crocodile rather than the Grinch. The three word that best describe him are as follows, and I quote,
“Stink!”
“Stank!”
“Stunk!”
Here we have this creature that is filled with hate and loathing for Christmas. Whether it’s because his head isn’t screwed on just right, or because his shoes are tied too tight, or because his his heart is three sizes too small; he can not stand Christmas, can’t stand it at all. He hates it so much that he is willing to do whatever it takes to stop it. Even if that means he needs to go down into Whoville and take it by force, which is exactly what he ends up doing. The Grinch goes to Whoville and takes the material things common to Christmas, but the one thing he can’t take is the spirit of the season.
Christmas is about much more than gifts, food, and family. It’s about the birth of Christ! It’s about the day God Himself threw off His divine mantle and became a human being like us to take the sins of man. Christmas is all about God doing the most unselfish thing anyone can do for anybody, give up His own life so that someone else may live.
Even if you’re not religious and take the stance that Christmas is just a holiday, the spirit of Christmas is still the same. It’s about bringing joy, laughter, light, and all that is good back into the world. Even if it’s only for one day, it’s a day were people can feel joy. And for the rest of us who have good lives, we can take that joy to others who don’t have it for Christmas. It’s about giving, not getting. Giving of your time, money, and sometimes even your life to show others what love is all about.
The Grinch got his second chance, because he deserved one, just like everyone else we’ve discussed so far. He learns that Christmas doesn’t come from a store, but that Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. This holiday season, remember that Christmas is not about you, it’s about others. It’s about Jesus, who is Christ the Lord!
If you would like to see my church’s rendition of the Grinch’s story, which is called “How Christmas Saved the Grinch”, you can watch it here (Please keep in mind that it’s a church production, so Christ was the center of the story):
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I’m have partnered myself with People of the Second Chance and their Never Beyond Poster Series. They will feature 25 posters representing well known historical, current, and fictional characters who are believed to have harmed society. The campaign draws out themes of forgiveness, grace, and what a pathway to a second chance looks like.
To see my last post for the Never Beyond Series, click here: Mel Gibson.
I love Mel Gibson, I think he’s a great actor and has done many classic movies that are must watches (not including What Women Want…that just sucked). He’s mostly known for portraying William Wallace and screaming “FREEDOM!”, and for creating The Passion of the Christ. The Passion is one of the most influential movies about Jesus and His sacrifice I have ever seen. I left the theater in tears after watching it on opening night. Seeing Christ’s death as it was portrayed in that movie was eye opening for me.
But Gibson is human. He got drunk and said some very hateful things; not to mention the angry voicemail messages.
Haven’t you ever done something stupid before?
Haven’t you ever said hurtful and nasty things?
We look at Mel Gibson, and because of his famous status we scoff and condemn him. Yes, what he did and said was not good, I don’t deny that, but if Gibson was a normal guy working a 9 to 5 job would we still care about it?
I don’t know what’s in Mel Gibson’s heart. I don’t know how sorry he truly is for the things he’s said and did. All I know is that he’s been trying to redeem himself ever since.
We’ve all said and done stupid things that have hurt others, and in turn, hurt our reputations. We all try to redeem ourselves in the eyes of the people we’ve harmed and win back our heart’s freedom.
I believe that we all need second chances from those we have hurt in the past; hurt by our words and by our actions. And if we deserve a second chance…
…Doesn’t the man who held the nail to Christ’s hand also deserve a second chance?
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I’m have partnered myself with People of the Second Chance and their Never Beyond Poster Series. They will feature 25 posters representing well known historical, current, and fictional characters who are believed to have harmed society. The campaign draws out themes of forgiveness, grace, and what a pathway to a second chance looks like.
To see my last post for the Never Beyond Series, click here: The KKK.
What does the internet and the KKK have in common?
You can put on a mask, be who you really want to be, and no one will know who’s abusing them.
Think about it. The Ku Klux Klan are known for putting on white masks and robes in order to terrorize, abuse, and even kill people who were different than them. They would put on a mask, and no one would know who they really were. At the end of a cross burning, they would take off their racist masks and go home to their families who were none the wiser. You could say that it’s when they’re among non-Klansmen that their real masks go on.
They act like loving, accepting, and often Christian people, but when the night comes, and there’s African Americans around, the real them comes out. And because their faces are hidden, they can do whatever they want without consequences. They’re safe from vengeance, retribution, and returned hatred. They can abuse and kill with a “clean” conscience.
How about the internet? Do we let our “secret selves” out when we’re surfing or talking to people on the web?
On the internet, you can put on your “mask” of a screen name and avatar, and be whoever you want to be. If you want to be a 15-year-old girl from Wisconsin, you can do that. If you want to be a 46-year-old “divorcee” looking for a good time, you can do that. If you want to be a smug know it all, you can do that. If you want to be the real you, you can do that as well, but a lot of people don’t.
I know I’ve hidden behind a screen name before, because I could get away with it. The internet allows us to do and say things we wouldn’t normally do or say in the real world because we have a mask on. We can abuse, slander, and troll whoever doesn’t agree with us. Why? Because we’re safe from vengeance, retribution, and returned hatred in real life. We can log off and continue to be the “real us” whenever we want.
On the internet you can say the most God-awful hurtful things to people, slander their names or likes just because they don’t agree with you or because you had a bad day.
Is who we really are masked by who we appear to be? Or are we the same everywhere? Do we act with the same Christian morals and values on the internet just like we do in the real world? Remember, we can’t hide from God. He’s omniscient, He knows everything, even our hearts.
I think being people of a second chance means that we need to be real. We are never beyond hiding our faces. Someone, even if it’s just God, always knows. Are we going to be like modern, cyber Klansmen, or are we going to take off the mask, and be who God commanded us to be? Mark 12:30-31:
“‘And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.‘ This is the first commandment.And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.‘ There is no other commandment greater than these.” – NKJV
We are commanded by Jesus to love our neighbors. In this day and age, that means on the internet as well. Let’s take off the masks that we can hide behind when we’re on the internet and become ourselves. And if our real selves is who we are on the internet, then let’s change who we are to be the people Jesus told us to be.
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I’m have partnered myself with People of the Second Chance and their Never Beyond Poster Series. They will feature 25 posters representing well known historical, current, and fictional characters who are believed to have harmed society. The campaign draws out themes of forgiveness, grace, and what a pathway to a second chance looks like.
To see my last post for the Never Beyond Series, click here: Darth Vader
Darth Vader is one of my favorite villains. One of the reasons why I loved Star Wars growing up is because of Vader. He’s epic! But there’s a deep story with Darth Vader’s fall to the Dark Side of the Force, and his return back into the light. This post may be a little long, but that’s because I want to take the time to really look at why Darth Vader is a person who deserved a second chance, and how Jesus could have ended up exactly like him.
Now, before you stone me for heresy, please just read on, it’ll all make sense.
Let’s look at Vader first. Anakin Skywalker was a boy born with a destiny; to bring balance to the Force. He was a virgin birth to his mother, Shmi Skywalker, and was born into slavery on the planet Tatooine. He was later found by Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi. They took Anakin to be trained as a Jedi. But his forbidden love for Padmé, and the death of his mother by the hands of raiders, caused him stray from his path.
By the end of his journey, his circumstances, the death of his mother, the forbidden love of his wife and unborn children, and his anger towards the world and his mentor, Obi-Wan, all caused him to turn against the ways of the Jedi. He became Darth Vader, the Dark Lord of the Sith, and ruler of the Galaxy along side his master, the Emperor. Not to mention he became one of the most recognizable fictional villains in the history of storytelling.
Anakin faced a choice, and he chose the path of evil because it looked better to him. He was promised great power that he wouldn’t have had otherwise. This cause his life to spiral out of control and into a life of murder, genocide, and control.
Now let’s look at Jesus’ life. Jesus and Vader are kind of similar in many ways. They were both virgin births, they were both born into captivity (Jesus’ was the Roman occupation, not slavery, but captivity nonetheless), they both had a great destiny ahead of them and they knew it, they both had great power (albeit Jesus’ was divine, and Skywalker’s was from the Force), and they both had a moment where they had to choose the Light Side or the Dark Side.
Jesus was offered to rule the world by Satan. In that moment, Jesus had to make a choice. The cross, or the world? We know that Jesus fought off Satan’s temptations with the Word of God, and chose the cross. But what if He didn’t?What if He chose to accept Satan’s offer? What if Jesus turned on His back to the sins of the world and simply took the world for His own? Because He could have. What if Jesus had become Darth Vader?
Go back many thousands of years to the BC days, and look at some facts about Jesus’ life.
When Jesus was born, He was immediately marked for death. King Herod tried to have Him killed because he heard that a king of the Jews was about to be born, so he had all the male children in the land killed off. But Mary and Joseph saved their Son by bringing Him to Egypt. (Matthew 2)
Jesus grew up in a “broken home”. Don’t believe me? Think about this logically for the culture of the day. The only people who knew Jesus was the Son of God, and was brought into this world through immaculate conception were Mary, Joseph, and a few others. In everyone esle’s eyes, Jesus was born in sin. Either Joseph knocked Mary up before their wedding, or she was sleeping around. One way or the other, Jesus was a “love child”. His own brothers didn’t believe He was the Son of God until later in life. So, here we have this man, growing up knowing who He is, but to everyone else He was born from sin. (John 7:1-5)
Jesus also had great power. Remember, Jesus was the Son of God; He was 100% divine, but He was also born of flesh, so He 100% human as well. Jesus, through His Father and the Holy Spirit, could heal the sick, multiply food, cast out demons, control the weather, walk on water, turn water into wine, and even rise Himself and others from the dead! He was, through God, a very powerful man.
And next to all of that, Jesus was natural leader. God or not, He could draw a crowd. Thousands and thousands of people would come to hear Jesus speak. He had the ability to speak into people’s lives, and those people listened to Him. He was a great speaker and leader.
Now, when it came time for Jesus to begin His ministry, after getting baptized in the Jordan, Jesus went into the desert to be tempted by Satan. During that time He fasted. The Bible only shows us three of the temptations: turning rocks into bread, jumping off the Temple and calling on the angels to save Him, and He was offered the kingdoms of the world. (Matthew 4)
The temptation to eat was natural, it was because He was hungry. But let’s look at the other two temptations. When Satan took Jesus to the top of the Temple, and told him to jump, what was the temptation? To prove Himself! People had laughed at the love child of Mary and Joseph all His life. He was mocked, scorned, and disliked already (and this was before His ministry started), but remember, He had the Power of God in Him! He could have jumped from the Temple, and landed safely and prove to others that He was, in fact, divine! Why do I think this? Because the Temple is a very public place. People would have noticed a man jumping off and landing safely. He would have been seen as a man of great power…but Jesus resisted this temptation.
What about the other temptation? Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and said that if He bowed down to him, Jesus could have it all. Satan offered Jesus the world…literally. Jesus was faced with a choice, the cross or the world? We know Jesus chose the cross….
But what if He chose the world? What if Jesus turned to the Dark Side? What if He said yes to Satan’s offer?
Here’s a man who, through Joseph’s line (Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:23-38), was the lineage of David, King of Israel, giving Him royal blood and a right to the throne. He was a great speaker, He could influence people into rebellion and use His power to seize His goal. He could have said that He had natural and divine right to the throne of David. He could have lead an uprising against the king.
But why stop there? He could then rally armies against the Roman occupation and kicked them out of His land.
But why stop there? He was the Son of God after all! Can you not see a Jesus twisted by the life he had, twisted by the people who mocked and scorned Him, and the Son of God twisted by giving His life over to Satan and sin, turning around and taking over Rome? Which was, at the time, the most powerful nation on Earth? Jesus could have taken over and ruled the world (of course!), and had divine right to do so.
But He didn’t!
Jesus resisted this temptation as he resisted the rest, and took the cross for our sins. He conquered death, and gave us life. Jesus could have become a BC Darth Vader, a man with a great destiny corrupted by evil to rule the land.
Remember, Jesus was still human. He felt as we feel, He was tempted as we are tempted. Jesus didn’t want to die. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked for God to take the cup of the cross from Him. But He surrendered His will to that of His Father’s (Matthew 26:39). Jesus chose to lay down His life for us. He knew that His kingdom was not one of Earth, but one of eternal life (John 18:36); a kingdom that would never fall. Because of this, Jesus remained sin-free, and was able to be the sacrifice for our redemption.
Now let’s go back to Vader. Anikin Skywalker, did not choose the right path. When it came time to choose the Light or Dark Side. He let his horrible past, and his desire to prove himself, overcome him. He chose to take what he thought he deserved and became Darth Vader And he got exactly what he wanted…accept for his wife’s life, he still lost that. He went on to rule the galaxy. Corrupted by evil and hate, he grew to despise his life.
But there is good news in all of this. The story of Darth Vader, as told in Star Wars, ends with redemption. Darth Vader, later in his life was faced with another choice. Watch his son die, or save his life. Throughout his years as Darth Vader, both his wife, and his son recognized that there was still good in him. And in the end, with Luke calling for his help, Vader took redemption, returned to the Light Side of the Force, killed the Empror, and saved his son’s life. It cost him his own life, but his soul was saved.
What can we take from these two stories? The story of Darth Vader’s journey into evil, and Jesus’ refusal to? We can take this: we will always have a second chance!
Let me say that again, we will always have a second chance!
God never leaves us without a chance to return to Him, no matter how good or evil we are. I mean, Vader slaughtered hundreds of children in cold blood, killed his own wife, blew up planets, killed men with his Force Choke (except for that one guy that made Vader so mad he choked him with his bare hands…yeah, I wouldn’t want to be that guy), and other disgusting things.
This guy got Vader so mad that he choked him with his bare hands! Dang...I'd hate to be him.
But in one moment, he was redeemed from a life of evil. Anakin Skywalker found redemption!
And we have the same thing. No matter who we are, what state of life we’re in, or what we’ve done, Jesus’ blood has saved us from death and destruction. We just have to choose to accept it. Through Christ, we all can receive a second chance.
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I’m have partnered myself with People of the Second Chance and their Never Beyond Poster Series. They will feature 25 posters representing well known historical, current, and fictional characters who are believed to have harmed society. The campaign draws out themes of forgiveness, grace, and what a pathway to a second chance looks like.
To see my last post for the Never Beyond Series, click here: Mike Tyson
I’m partnering myself with People of the Second Chance and their Never Beyond Poster Series. They will feature 25 posters representing well known historical, current, and fictional characters who are believed to have harmed society. The campaign draws out themes of forgiveness, grace, and what a pathway to a second chance looks like.
This week is Mike Tyson.
Standing Back Up
When I hear the name Mike Tyson, I think of two things: boxing and biting off Holyfield’s ear. I too think of cannibalism when I’m being headbutted multiple times, so I don’t know what the big deal is about that. Oh, wait…he spit the ear chuck out, didn’t he? Noob!
I don’t know too much about Tyson; I was never much of a boxing fan beyond the Rocky movies. However, I do know that he, among other things, is a convicted rapist, a drug addict, and cheater (both in the ring, and in his marriages). Does this mean that he’s unworthy of forgiveness? Does this mean he doesn’t deserve a second chance?
In 2005, he was quoted in USA Today saying:
“My whole life has been a waste – I’ve been a failure. I just want to escape. I’m really embarrassed with myself and my life.” (Source)
From what I understand, Mike “The Baddest Man on the Planet” Tyson is trying to turn his life around. He’s making an attempt to change. He’s trying to stand back up after being knocked down, and I, as a imperfect man, can respect that. Romans 3:23-24 says:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (NIV)
None of us are perfect, and if Jesus can wash away my sin, He can wash away Tyson’s, and if He can wash away Tyson’s, He can wash away anyone’s. I don’t know where Mike Tyson is spiritually, and frankly, that’s none of my business. But I do hope that he finds, or has found, redemption through Christ Jesus. I believe that we all need to make an effort to stand back up after being knocked down. When we feel like we’re nothing more than a screw up, let Jesus take us by the hand and lift us up. Proverbs 24:16:
“For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.” (NIV)
When we fall, we need to stand back up. God is always there to help up get off the mat and back into the fight. Getting and keeping our lives right with God is difficult work. It is likely that we will fall at times, but it’s when we stand back up that we show that we are willing to do what it takes to get our lives right. Through the blood of Christ we can receive uncountable second chances.
With all of that being said, don’t you think Mike Tyson deserves a second chance? Because…I think we all do.
Andrew Ronzino
