You’re not good enough. You don’t deserve it. You’ll screw it up again. You’ll let him down. You’ll fail.

Sound familiar?

Nothing stops you dead in your tracks like guilt. It traps you in the worst moments of your life, and keeps you from being who you were meant to be.

So today, we’re giving ourselves permission to forgive … ourselves. We’re off the hook, and we’re moving on with our lives. We believe in ourselves, and we believe in you.

Will you join us?

As the waves begin to surround you and the sun begins to set, you’ve realized you’ve done it again. You’ve put yourself in a situation that led to failure, judgment, and resentment. And while a sea of treacherous waves begins to rise and crush your feeble body, you realize that you’re helpless, lost and afraid.

“How did I end up here!?” you ask. “Where did I go wrong!?”

And while you rewind and replay the events that occurred within your head, you realize it actually was your fault. You realized you’ve not only judged and condemned, but failed in a miserable way.

As the temperature of the water gets colder and the waves that surround you get bigger, it begins to get harder and harder for you to stay a afloat. The shame begins to set in and the tears begin to stream from your bobbing head. You give out a loud voice shouting, “I’m sorry! I never meant for it to be like this.”

And as your voice gets lost in the sound of the wind and crashing waves, you realize you’re alone, tired, and sorry. You wish you could go back and change the way you did things, but what’s done is done.

But just as you begin to give up and let your body begin it’s plunge to the darkened depths of failure, you spot something in the distance. You can’t make out what it is, but it looks to be floating towards you. As you scramble to stay afloat, you use every last ounce of strength to make your way towards this unknown object.

As you struggle to make your way to the unknown object, you see another one. And another. And another. Until you realize you are surround by them.

As you finally reach the one closest to you, you realize what it is. It’s a small orange life-raft, and written across the top is the word “GRACE.”

You realize you have been given a second chance. You’ve been given hope. You’ve been shown grace.

As you make your way into the small floating device, the temperature, waves and wind don’t seem as scary any more. In fact, you completely forget about them as your mind is now more focused on the people you need to apologize to.

So today, on NO QUIT Monday, remember that failure isn’t the end — it’s the first step in finding grace and a second chance.

“If I should have a daughter” by Sarah Kay:

If I should have a daughter, instead of Mom, she’s gonna call me Point B, because that way she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way to me.

And I’m going to paint solar systems on the backs of her hands, so she has to learn the entire universe before she can say, “Oh, I know that like the back of my hand.”

And she’s going to learn that this life will hit you hard in the face, wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach.

But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.

There is hurt here that cannot be fixed by Band-Aids or poetry.
So the first time she realizes that Wonder Woman isn’t coming, I’ll make sure she knows she doesn’t have to wear the cape all by herself.

Because no matter how wide you stretch your fingers, your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal.

Believe me, I’ve tried. “And, baby,” I’ll tell her, don’t keep your nose up in the air like that. I know that trick; I’ve done it a million times. You’re just smelling for smoke so you can follow the trail back to a burning house, so you can find the boy who lost everything in the fire to see if you can save him. Or else find the boy who lit the fire in the first place, to see if you can change him.”

But I know she will anyway, so instead I’ll always keep an extra supply of chocolate and rain boots nearby, because there is no heartbreak that chocolate can’t fix.

Okay, there’s a few heartbreaks that chocolate can’t fix.

But that’s what the rain boots are for.

Because rain will wash away everything, if you let it.

I want her to look at the world through the underside of a glass-bottom boat, to look through a microscope at the galaxies that exist on the pinpoint of a human mind, because that’s the way my mom taught me. 

That there’ll be days like this.

There’ll be days like this, my momma said.

When you open your hands to catch and wind up with only blisters and bruises; when you step out of the phone booth and try to fly and the very people you want to save are the ones standing on your cape; when your boots will fill with rain, and you’ll be up to your knees in disappointment.

And those are the very days you have all the more reason to say thank you. 

Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s swept away.

You will put the wind in winsome, lose some.

You will put the star in starting over, and over.

And no matter how many land mines erupt in a minute, be sure your mind lands on the beauty of this funny place called life.

And yes, on a scale from one to over-trusting, I am pretty damn naive.

But I want her to know that this world is made out of sugar. 

It can crumble so easily, but don’t be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it. 

“Baby,” I’ll tell her, “remember, your mama is a worrier, and your papa is a warrior, and you are the girl with small hands and big eyes who never stops asking for more.”

Remember that good things come in threes and so do bad things. And always apologize when you’ve done something wrong. But don’t you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining.

Your voice is small, but don’t ever stop singing.
And when they finally hand you heartache, when they slip war and hatred under your door and offer you handouts on street-corners of cynicism and defeat, you tell them that they really ought to meet your mother.

Get involved today, and join us in making scandalous grace an everyday part of the world around us!

• Check out our most recent video premier, and share it with others.
• Learn about POTSC Groups, and take a chance by joining or starting one.
• Join the Grace Mob, and become an instrument of practical, actionable grace.
• Share your story!  Email us (mohan@potsc.com) and lend your voice to the movement.  Drafts, questions, comments … it’s all valued.  We can even help you craft your story if necessary.

Have you recently gotten involved? Share your thoughts below!

When there is death, grace lives.

When a job is lost, grace can be found.

When memories are forgotten, grace is remembered.

When money is gone, grace remains.

When pain is too much, grace is even more.

When relationships fail, grace triumphs.

When friendship is split, grace repairs.

When lies are told, grace is truth.

When injustice lingers, grace overcomes.

When tears fall, grace uplifts.

When hope walks out, grace stays put.

When vows are broken, grace mends.

When fear keeps you quiet, grace proclaims.

When lies humiliate, grace praises.

When heights are unreachable, grace climbs.

When wars rage, grace fights.

When lust diminishes, grace values.

When pride crushes, grace restores.

When image is tarnished, grace is beauty.

When hearts change, grace continues.

When emotions unload, grace carries.

Grace. Grace. Grace.

When it’s all said and done: GRACE.

In her fourth month of pregnancy, Trina Pockett found a lump under her collar bone.

Her doctor ordered an emergency biopsy and when she woke up from her surgery, he said the three words that changed her world forever….”You have cancer.”

In this new People of the Second Chance video, Trina shares how she survived.

TRINA AND KATELYN POCKETT: A MOM’S COURAGE THROUGH CANCER from PEOPLE OF THE SECOND CHANCE on Vimeo.

Listen, don’t diss your disasters. Show them a little respect. The past cannot be changed, forgotten, edited, or erased. It can only be accepted & resurrected… and appreciated for what it’s brought us to now. Our past, our mistakes, our failures are set ups, not set backs.

Today is NO QUIT Monday. Embrace what makes us human, what makes our success so beautiful, knowing that adversity carries within it a seed for something better.

Don’t give up. We’re in this together.

Imagine what could happen to the quantity of grace in the world if every single one of us determined to get a little bit better at giving grace.

If we decided to do the impossible and forgive?

If we finally let that one person we’ve been grudging against off the hook?

If we—and maybe here’s the real shocker—decided to show ourselves a little mercy?

What if a tribe of people rose up and reclaimed real grace, big grace, scandalously generous grace on behalf of the faith?

That’s the point of starting a People of the Second Chance Group.

To set the stage to think differently. To recalibrate our views on grace. To invite the world to it’s second chance.

It is time for us to unleash second chance living. Click here to get started.

I vividly remember the pain of staring at my reflection with self-hatred, wanting to hurt myself or pull out my hair and feel some sort of release. My life was a mess and I secretly grieved for the life I thought I was supposed to be living.

Then I did what so many of us do. I slapped on a huge smile and lived a public lie of perfection. I presented what I believed everyone wanted me to be.

Can you relate?

The difficulty of keeping the façade going? The pain of living a lie? The deafening silence of isolation?

One day, someone shared their story with me, and I realized I wasn’t alone. I shared my own story, and felt love and acceptance in return. I vividly remember the hope that came with that moment.

And that is why I love People of the Second Chance — a courageous community of people who share their pains and struggles, and an unwavering belief that there really are second chances. We are a community that’s committed to loving each other where we are and encouraging each other to not give up.

That is also why I took the bold step of starting a POTSC Group in my own community. Together, we’re taking the conversation of radical grace offline and into our everyday lives, discovering new ways accept grace and share it with others. The time with my group has been incredible; they inspire me, cry with me, love with me, challenge me and make me laugh harder than I ever have before.

I encourage you to make that bold step for yourself. Take a chance, find the time, and be a part of mobilizing the message of grace and second chances!