Well, it has come, after a year of waiting, my last day at the University of Calgary, one more commute to go. The day will include a morning of handing over the last of my stuff, emptying my office of personal belongings and an afternoon of interviewing potential replacements, a meeting after 4pm to decide whether anyone is worth bringing back.

Today, I was asked if I would be willing to remain “a person of interest”, available to be called back to share “all that I know” and paid on a daily basis.

After giving 12 months notice, all of my humanity wants to cry out “Sc***w you, I gave you a year and we are here today because of you, it is your fault, I am out of here”!!!

But is that the proper response. Is that how Jesus responds to me? Is that the grace I have received from Jesus, that I am called to share with a broken world?

Does pointing the finger, depositing blame, make my life better? Will I feel that I have done my best, finished well?

How I respond to this situation will make a difference. In many ways it is ridiculous to think that what I do will make any difference but the way I respond will lay a path for the future, my own and the department’s and the Faculty and the University.

Jesus is clear, we are not to “forgive seven times but seventy times seven” and my experience supports his words, that we have more than one chance, our God is a God of second chances