As with many other churches, what started as a major adjustment has become a tool for broader reach—live-streaming services.  The only drawback we can see is people who substitute this for coming in person but prefer to stay home because it’s easier and more comfortable.

“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mat. 26:41) – a topic for another blog!

For those who really can’t come in person, livestream services have served to keep them tied into the worship, teaching, and church-life, which we all appreciate.  We also thank the Lord for the technological capability to do this and for the folks who serve Him and us with their own technological capability to run it all!

Still, nothing and no one is perfect.  This is why we need do-overs once in a while. 

Such as the time our worship team had finished our pre-service practice, everything was prepped and ready to go, and the videographer gave the signal to start.  That week’s leader gave the opening welcome, prayed, we began to play, everyone began to sing, and…

… “Wait—we need to do all this again!  We weren’t live!”

I didn’t remember dying and everyone else looked in good health, but if the videographer said so…(!)

Five minutes of do-over.  Five minutes where the online viewers would have no idea we’d even started at all, and where we’d be repeating the above-mentioned activity.

Some ways to respond to this:

1. Be vexed at the tech people for not getting it right the first time.

2. Be vexed at circumstances for causing the problem.

3. Be resigned, say “that’s life”, and move on.

4. Be glad for the second chance to make up for any mistakes and do the good parts even better.

Ok, I can understand why people would respond the first two ways, but it won’t do them or the who/what they blame any good.  It’s useless and even harmful—harmful to relationships and harmful for our well-being because we feel even worse about lack of control.

The third way, while not so harmful, doesn’t do much good either, other than to shrug off bad stuff and relieve some stress for a while.  Still, it’s passive and can develop a fatalistic mentality.  Passivity causes us to let life happen to us without being proactive about improving anything.  Even worse, fatalism renders us helpless and even less active.  Why try to help, prevent, or start anything when it’s all up to fate that we can’t do anything about?

That’s why I recommend option #4.  Being glad for the do-over opens our hearts, minds, and spirits to ways we can improve and gives us the opportunity to actually do so.

Who of us wouldn’t be glad if we’d failed a test and were told “You can take it again”?  Or what if we do something wrong—do we want that to stand, or do we want the chance to right the wrong?  Isn’t it great when there’s no record of failure, or even better, when it wasn’t even noticed to begin with?!

That’s exactly what the Lord does for us concerning our sins, once we confess them, acknowledging our wrong:

“Bless the Lord… Who forgives all our sins… as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”  Ps. 103:1, 3, 12.

In golf, we call this chance for a do-over a “mulligan”— “Hey, my ball just went into the pond!  I don’t think I can fish it out!  Can I just use another ball and try again?”  “Sure, take a mulligan.”  “Thanks!!”

Ah, but what if we got it right the first time?  What if we did the best possible the first time?  What if we got an A+ the first time?  “You mean to tell me that doesn’t count, and I have to do it again?!”

Yeah, that’s hard.  But think of it this way: We can develop consistency in excellence by repeating the right way, by doing our best again, by acing the test again.  Likewise, we can even improve with the chance for more practice.

People fail.  We fail.  Leaders—give your followers a do-over when they need it, even as your leaders have hopefully done for you.  And if they haven’t, I’m sure you wish they had!  Spouses, sibling, friends, parents, children—do the same for others, knowing they’ve either done that for you or you wish they would.

“Love keeps no record of wrongs.”  1 Cor. 13:5  In other words—it gives limitless chances for do-overs.

Going back to our five-minute do-over to begin our worship service again.  As it happened, some of us had made mistakes, either in speaking, singing, or playing, the first time.  Those who had, felt relief that these errors weren’t permanently recorded on Facebook livestream video! 

Not that they wouldn’t have been forgiven—everyone knows no one’s perfect.  Still, for the record, it was great to not have it on the record.

We all laughed, including the folks attending in person, and gladly did our do-over— another chance to worship and pray more, welcome and feel welcomed again, and enjoy more fellowship with the Lord and each other.  With none of the original mistakes repeated! 

And if any of us serving had messed up again—we could have just announced another do-over!