A Reflection on Us and Them
by LewisIt has been encouraging to me to hear from several of you over the last few days that you have been thinking about mercy more than you had before, or in ways you hadn’t thought of it before. My hope is that as we realize we are recipients of mercy, we will also be dispensers of mercy.
The reality of too many of our lives too much of the time is that we want mercy for ourselves and judgment for others. Of course we would never say it that way, and so we fail to even see the dichotomy. Instead we say things like we want “them” to get what “they” deserve. But we don’t have to think very long or very hard to know that “we” don’t want to get what “we” deserve.
The Bible is filled with examples of both sides of this equation, and the math is both simple and hard. It is simple because God has made it clear, and it is hard because God has made it clear. It is also hard because our human minds and spirits continually interfere with our ability to grasp God’s mercy and God’s love. Tune your radio to the edge of the frequency for a station you really want to listen to and you’ll get get the picture.
One way to tune in more clearly to God’s mercy is to be a carrier of mercy. Several years ago I found a song by The Choir called Mercy Lives Here. The chorus to that song says simply:
Mercy lives here
Oh Mercy lives here
At home with the saints and the sinners
Mercy lives here
May the body of believers known as the Palo Alto Church of Christ be able to sing those words. May we be where mercy lives.
In the City and Under the Mercy,
Lewis