Second Chances.

I suppose I gave in tonight. I watched as an entire family was placed under the microscope. A family containing eight children and one failed marriage.

Most everyone, unless you live under a rock, probably knows who I'm talking about.

I have many thoughts and feelings about this. Yet, who can even know what was going on in their intimate lives?

It's so easy to look in from the outside and think you know exactly what went wrong or why certain things didn't work out. These two people, this former husband and wife, are that. Two people. Two people who have hurt and frustrated each other. Who decided the best way to move forward was to find an exit strategy. Working through the bitterness, betrayal, and resentment that can foster if unaddressed is difficult. It brings out the best and worst in two people.

I suppose I wish we could have watched them work through those issues instead of watching those things tear them apart. Have Americans really become so bad at real-life communication? How have our examples become families who don't even know how to talk to each other?

In the same breath, I think to myself, who am I. Who am I to pass judgement on these people? I see the pain in each of their eyes and I'm reminded of how much I can relate. Wanting to be a team but feeling disconnected. Wanting to be together but not wanting to lose my independent spirit. Wanting desperately to honestly and openly communicate, but fearing the result. Fearing my vulnerability will lead me into danger.

They have taken a different route. The exit strategy instead of the exit ramp with a viewpoint. Viewpoints which include different perspectives and the grace of second chances. Viewpoints which can take time to take in, but offer all the beauty of any beautiful stop.

I don't know what will happen either. In their lives or mine. I want to be able to say that I gave it all that I had. That we took our second chance and made the absolute most of it. That the second chance, not the first one, is what saved our lives.

A friend use to say, Our God is the God of second chances.

We all need a second chance.

All of us.