May I hereby plead with us to be giving a second chance to the people that offend us. I know that if we review critically what they did to us, you may have every reason to be angry with me. Imagine how you will be giving another chance to someone, when the pains he inflicted on you are still fresh. You have not recovered from them. In spite of this, I appeal still that you give him or her another chance.

I know that human beings can do unimaginable things to please themselves at the expense of others. Think of a case where the life of a lady was being threatened by her husband and her friend took her home for counselling and for protection. Not long after, the lady heard that the friend she brought in was having immoral affairs with her husband and that they were planning seriously to travel to England. If given another chance, would she not elope with your son? You accepted to live with a youth whose dad had thrown out of his house for unruly behaviour. One day, you caught him raping your daughter! If given another chance, would he not rape your wife?

You ignored your mum’s insistence that she would never visit you if you agreed to live with your cousin whose dad refused to pay your fees when you were in school. You returned from work one day to receive the bad news that your daughter, who is your only child, was missing. Thank God that a few hours later, security agents invited you to their station, where you saw her and your cousin. Your cousin and his gang members had kidnapped her but were caught on the way by the police officers. If he was given another chance, would he not kidnap you?

During the Nigerian Civil war, for protection and prestige, a man gave an apartment in his newly built house to his friend without demanding rent. The only way Uncle felt that he would compensate him was by sleeping with his younger sister. The ugly relationship continued till the time the girl was engaged in marriage. On her last night in her father’s house, with her consent, Uncle lied that he was travelling to a far place. To protect his apartment from thieves, the girl’s parents told her to sleep in the apartment, not knowing that Uncle was hiding at a corner. Sometime in the night, the owner visited there, as if he smelt a rat but Uncle was quick to vanish into the toilet until he had left. Their evil relationship continued that night. What an evil way to repay an act of kindness! If Uncle was given a second chance, would he not sleep with the girl’s mum?

My boss, in those days, called me and said that his housemaid told him that I came to their house in Victoria Island and told her to leave him because my niece was sent home by them. My pain was that my boss, who knew my testimony as a child of God, ought to know that it was not true. Secondly, he did not send my niece home. It was my niece that decided to leave him despite my threat that she would not live with me if she left him. I stood by my decision when she left him. I did not tell this to my boss, a very good and kind man. It was a fellow staff member, whose two children could not justify, through their academic results, their privilege of enjoying our company’s college scholarship, that told his niece to lie against me.

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It was very strange since I was not the Chairman nor the Secretary of the Scholarship Board but an ordinary member. We agreed before we opened the school results of the scholarship beneficiaries that any student, who scored below 60 per cent, would be removed from the scholarship list. That man’s children scored 37 per cent and 35 per cent respectively. That was why their names were withdrawn.

The Lord Jesus was aware of the above when He told us to forgive and be giving people a second chance.  Shortly after, the wife of my Oga visited us. She told us that the girl had left their house because she was pregnant. All the while, I prayed for her for salvation and not allow anybody to use her for evil deeds. We should not pray for their destruction. I prayed for salvation of my colleague in our department, who told her to lie against me. He was one of three people I recommended to be sent to our international headquarters in the United States and on return, promoted so that when they retired, which was close, they would be glad for knowing the US since they did not go far in education.     

Giving a second chance is God’s way of dealing with us. I may not know how many times He gave me such chances; may be a million times. “Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more,” the Lord Jesus told the woman caught in adultery and the penalty was death by stoning. On April 16, 1972, He told me, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more”. That was to a man who was reprimanded during the civil war by a man because he caught his niece sleeping with me. With a frowning face, I asked him whether he had even seen me in his house by day or at night. “If your niece slept in my room, is she not the person that you should reprimand?” I asked him. Boldness in iniquity! Jesus said that He did not condemn me, only that I should stop committing sin and I stopped. At the TTC Uzuakoli College, some years before my salvation, if I did not have the time to get exit permission, what I would do was to carry my soccer boot, especially, if a soccer match was close, as if I was going to repair it. “What’s wrong? I hope it will be ready for you to use on Saturday,” most people would be asking instead of the exit paper! That was the fellow the Lord Jesus forgave absolutely. Praise God.

The Lord Jesus did not tell us to do what He did not do. Death by crucifixion was slow and very tortuous, yet the Lord Jesus endured it all, prayed that God should forgive His murderers for not knowing the implication of their evil deeds. Uncle Stephen understood that message, hence he told God not to lay the charge of their murderous act on them. May God help us to be following these examples.

For further comments, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0909 041 9057; [email protected]