Background Checks and Second Chances

I received an e-mail this past week informing me I had been nominated and elected to the Alumni Association of my alma mater, Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas. Do they do background checks for these positions? Like many, my college years were not the brightest lights on my tree. Too much freedom resulted in too low grades. Too many creative ideas resulted in too many pranks. Too cheap gasoline prices (I actually pumped it at $.14.9 per gallon on occasion) resulted in too many road trips. Too many late night card games resulted in too few early morning classes attended. But what great memories and what great friends I made. And now it appears one of those “friends” has nominated me for the Alumni Association. I do owe a lot to my school. I spent four very formative years there and somehow, in spite of myself; I learned much that served me well later in life. I majored in Bible and learned early that the Bible is a book of second chances. I remember an Old Testament professor who thrilled us with his version of Jonah and the line from Jonah 3:1 stuck with me, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.” I’m glad I’ve been given a second chance to make a contribution to my alma mater. Aren’t you glad God speaks a second time, and a third, and a fourth . . . in spite of the background check?