Inspired by the resilience of Olympic athletes who overcame significant challenges to compete, Bishop Hughes reflects on the theme of second chances, drawing a parallel to the Christian journey and emphasizing that believers are given multiple chances to live fully into their faith. (Time: 4:16.)
Video Transcript
This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark, and I want to talk with you about second chances. As I watched the Olympics over the last two weeks, I was struck by the number of athletes who had overcome some incredible challenges just to show up, just to be there to compete. People who had had really difficult injuries or surgeries to repair something that was broken, twisted, sprain, hurt catastrophically, and had to work through all of that and heal enough to come back. There were athletes who had had a significant loss in their lives, whether it was a family member, close friend, loss of employment, but something that left them very shaken to their core and lacking confidence in who they are and their ability to do something. There were some who had had the disappointment of loss after loss, who had been to the Olympics before and gotten close, but not close enough to medal, and had been so frustrated and disappointed by their performance that time before, that for many of them, going to this Olympics was a second chance. It’s not so much that it was a do-over, but it was a chance to show up fresh and ready and to try again and to try with all of their might.
And there was something really wonderful with those who took that second chance and were able to come and be fully who they are, to compete in the way in which they wanted to compete, and in some cases, to medal, but in some cases, it was simply to be there. To hear their stories was moving and awe-inspiring, and there were times where I just cried along with them as they told their stories. It was a fantastic thing to see, not only that they got a second chance, but they did something with it.
This is our story as Christians. This is our story as people who live and move and have their being in the Diocese of Newark, we are given a second chance, a third chance, a fourth and a fifth chance by God every single day that we wake up.
The church is in a place and in a time where the communities around us need us. People around us want to be connected to someone, to something. They want to know that they are loved. They want to know that they have a place. They want to know how to get past the hurt and confusion in their own lives. They also want to have their questions about the spiritual life answered, but they have questions about God. They want to know how to be faithful people. This is something that we have the chance to do something with.
It is going to mean for us that just like those athletes press forward, they got the surgery, they have the doctors work with them, they did all of the rehab, they did the grief work and the recovery work. They worked with therapists and grief counselors to get better at that. They made the decision to put themselves back into condition, to do the work that they needed to do so they could show up and be the person that they were meant to be, as a competitor. We do that same work right now. This means in our churches, we’ve got to look around and ask ourselves, what are the things that God wants us to keep, what are the things that God wants us to do away with, that are not worth our time anymore? How are we to reach the people who are around us?
We have a second chance, and in some cases, a third, fourth and fifth chance. We have a God who is constantly giving abundant chances to live fully into who we are called to be as church. As you head out into your day today, and as you consider who you’re called to be as a Christian and who your church is called to be, ask this question: What does God want me to be? What does God need me to be in this particular time and this place? And how do I go for that second chance?
