Recently, I’ve noticed that my Instagram feed is flooded with video clips that depict stories of people who have the ability to revisit certain moments in their past and change the course of their life. This could either mean starting a new life altogether or simply making changes to their current one. Coincidentally, I have just finished “When You Don’t Like Your Story,” a book I had (and left) for some time. While these two sources talk from completely different perspectives and the idea of time travel to change the future (or present) is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible, I admit that it’s fascinating to think if only I could turn back and make up for my poor choices (so interesting that I purchased some webtoon coins so that I could finish reading one story! Haha!). I am not new to this genre, yet this time I ponder on one thing: what if I had a chance to do this one more time?
In a typical story, there are several characters, including the hero, the villain, and the supporting cast. In a fantasy drama such as non-science-time travel genre, there’s usually some being that makes the impossible things happen (the time-travel). Either a deep regret or love (or both) of someone that has died that somehow opens the gate to the past for the persons they deeply care to redo their fate. It’s unbiblical, of course, yet I couldn’t help dreaming the what if.
What if I suddenly open my eyes in a different year and find myself wearing my high school uniform? What if I abruptly walk down the alley to my university while running errands? I already know which path I should choose and the one I should have avoided. If I was able to make the right decisions, my story would be different in 2020ish. But, wouldn’t this make me trust my own strength? Wouldn’t it make me the one responsible for saving the future? In that case, I would not have to face the consequences of my bad behavior. I wouldn’t even need a savior because I know what is right and wrong and where it would lead me. It would make me the master of my own life.
But wouldn’t it be nice to have a father or grandfather who loves me so much that they pray to God so I could have my life altered? Wait a minute. I do have Jesus who gives me a new life! Anyone who is in Him is a new creation, isn’t it? And those who believe in the death and resurrection of Christ are granted the opportunity to live a new life? That is the second life! I have my second chance, the real one!
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:3-4 (ESV)
Do you see what I see? Those who were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, were baptized in His death and in the glory of the Father we may walk in the newness of life!
One must die in order to live again. In the same way, we must let go our old life to live in the new one. The old life of unknowing God, of self-centeredness and misguided actions. It is that life we must finish off, so that we could follow the path of Christ Jesus who died to sin and so we might live again with Him in His resurrection.
“This is my second life,” I said to myself, and this message is also for all of you. We don’t have to daydream of various impossible events to redo our past. The LORD is omnipotent God of all ages, He sees everything in history and in the future, He knew all along we would mess a lot of things, yet He gives us chance to follow Him. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
God does not abandon us in the chaos we create, but we must let go of our old selves and live a new life with Him, the Creator of life. This is my second life!
For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:5-11 (ESV)
Thank you for reading this article, I hope you feel blessed as I do! I would be glad to hear your story about God and all His goodness. I am currently getting back on my track to write weekly post (hopefully more in the future). Let’s connect and so I could hear your story too about the goodness of God!
Tiny Little Things 
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