Second Chances

THERE IS SO MUCH to thank for in a second chance. But certain decisions and actions in life carry with it certain finality that once made a seal of fate closes other avenues but the one before the person. And he who learned from the evils of his past will be ready to face what might meet him in that road.

At the time when Ramon Credo, Sally Villanueva and Elizabeth Batain decided to carry with them illegal drugs, and knowingly so as news reports indicated, they have made a decision, and followed it up with actions, that sealed their return path behind. Whatever circumstances that forced them to do it, they have made a decision to participate indirectly in the distribution of drugs that have killed so many futures, destroyed so many families, and took so many children away from the loving embrace of their homes.

Without dipping their fingers into bloody wounds, they still have blood in their hands for the fee of thousands of dollars. It is like doing a Judas with a bag of silver coins in exchange for the life of the Lord.

It is ironic that sometimes people have to help others kill thousand others in order to live. Such convoluted logic in many evil circumstances leaves us to wonder when will people start looking at evil on its face instead of wallowing on the empty promises it offers. Will death be that bad for a good man? Will it be hard to let the Giver of life take that same life anytime He wants it so even if death has to come from starvation?

Sometimes people so feared death that they never realized they have given up living. 

The short time that Vice President Jejomar Binay managed to extend for our compatriots found guilty in the Chinese courts may have been productive had they used it in preparing for the deadly outcome of their actions. Cleaning up the house so to say, so that when the time of reckoning comes they are ready to face the ghosts of their sins with the clean soul of a contrite sinner. That way, the efforts of Binay may have been worth the while. 

Second chances are good. But these are gifts that no single person can claim right for. Oftentimes those who were offered many second chances in the past are the people who seek it when it is no longer meant for them.

At the end of the day, life takes its true meaning when, at the threshold of death, the dying sees the truth that life is more than just the lifetime spent in this world, may that be short or long. There is always a second chance at the threshold of death. That comes only when man realizes that dying after all is another chance for a life that can be lived in joy forever. And should he embrace that second chance before his last breath escapes him, he will have been blessed with a second chance after all.