God Takes a Mulligan

There are a couple places in the Bible where God shows regret. In 1 Samuel 15 God says “I regret that I made Saul King.” Saul had turned his back on God and had not worked out so well at being King, so God had David anointed king while Saul was still on the throne, thus beginning one of the more interesting stories of the Bible. Earlier in scripture God shows regret. In Genesis 6:6 God we read, “And the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved God to his heart.” It is comforting to me that we have a God that has been God enough to take a “do-over” we golfers would call it a “mulligan”.
Can we be bold enough or comfortable enough with our God to say that God made a mistake? God’s plan for creation was not flawed, God had high hopes for Adam and Eve but they blew it, and over time God had had enough so God contacted Noah who builds an Ark and the rains came and you know the rest of the story. If God is an all knowing, omnipresent, super deity how could this have happened? If God is all knowing, (God is) God should have known from the start that Saul would make a rotten king and so the mess with David could have been avoided. Wasn’t God paying attention? Had God taken his eye off the ball? As a friend at Recovery Worship said, “maybe God relapsed.”
Knowing that we have a God who has not always had plans work out the way that God had intended is pretty good news for us, his creation. We have made decisions, done things, hurt people, and simply screwed up and because of the cross we are given a mulligan. “Nothing separates us from the love that is in Christ Jesus” we hear Paul say in Romans 8, great news. The Grace of God knows no limits, we simply need to repent…..and try to do better the next time.
Every Sunday when we take that long pause during the confession to open ourselves up to God we begin the journey of forgiveness. When we hear the words of absolution it is like we just walked over and picked up the ball and put it back on the tee for another try at life. We know that we will try harder, keep our head down, eye on the ball, slow our swing and hope for a better effort the second, and third, and forth swing at life. Grace is such a great gift isn’t it?!?!