6:00 -- Hope Chornicles 60

Several months ago I was talking to a woman at my church who was doing Weight Watchers. She talked about keeping tack of points in her journal and how that helped keep her on track with her goal. But then she shared that there are days when she just plain blows it and is quite dismayed to add up her points. When this happens, she has two choices. One is to wallow in it and put herself down and totally give up for the day and eat whatever her heart desires.

The second choice is to mark a bold line in her journal and write "6:00." Six o'clock is usually when she starts her day. In writing those three numbers, she is choosing to start over, to begin her day again. No, it doesn't undue her food choices from earlier in the day. And writing 6:00 every day would really not be working the plan. But writing 6:00 periodically allows her the grace to start again.

The idea of 6:00 seems to me to be one of forgiveness. First, it is forgiveness of the self. More than simply forgiveness of the self, it is a chance to let ourselves begin again. When kids are playing or competing or whatever, you will sometimes here them say, "I get a 'do over'". Wouldn't it be nice if we had do over buttons for all the times we are mean or petty or generally mess up? 6:00, if implemented correctly, seems to me to be a means of do over. It is cleaning up the mess and beginning again.

And even our friends and family probably need to be treated with a 6:00 mindset. Again, I think it is a mindset of forgiveness.

Too often, we get through half our day in shambles and our mindset becomes, "If I can just make it through this day and start over tomorrow." But 6:00 invites us too begin again at any moment of the day: in midst of an awkward conversation, after making a poor choice, after doing something we know we shouldn't have.

God, I think, approves of 6:00. Yes, there is often fallout from poor decisions, but He gives us grace to handle them. He gives us grace -- period. While recognizing the pain our choices have caused, He takes our hand and helps us up and invites us to "begin again" if we will humble ourselves and give it all to Him.

We have hope because God never leaves us sitting in the muck of our choices. He always invites us to try again. If we are sitting in the muck, it is not God's doing but that we have decided to plant ourselves there in misery. How much better to look to God and say, "I'm ready to begin again. Can it be 6:00?" He will always say, "Yes."