Press Play and then begin reading!!! (unless you are like me and cant listen to music and read- come back and listen.  This song is rocking my socks off right now! )

This is a prayer I’m praying for myself. 

Its more than a WWJD process, its seeing the need beyond the surface and looking for the person beyond people.  Do you love to love?  Do you love to love people?

MERCY – a Middle English, Anglo-French word used as a broad term referring to benevolence, forgiveness and kindness in a variety of religious, ethical, social and legal contexts.

A quick wikipedia (you know the ultimate source of truth!) search provided this information:

-One of the basic virtues of chivalry, Christian ethics, Islam, and Judaism, it is also related to concepts of justice and morality in behavior between people.

-a great literary reference draws a connection in The Merchant of Venice:

The quality of mercy is not strain’d.

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

So if mercy is a universal word that means that same thing among most religions, the courtroom, and social classrooms – why is it that we struggle so much with exemplifying what it means?

So, how can we show mercy?  I don’t have answers, but I do have questions…

• do you see with pity or help?
• do you want what’s best or best for you
• do you operate in convenience or compelling?
• do you see in color?
• do you give or take?
• are you gracious or judgmental?
• have you experienced mercy bestowed in your direction?
• whose eyes do you wear when you watch the world?

There have been places and environments where those I report to and am surrounded by don’t always operate in this regard.  I offer some advice – be the mercy.  Fight for it.  Fight through it.  Fight beyond it.  Be the one; the catalyst for change.  I think even in our “christian” environments, I think we forget that we can be the lighthouse.

When I think of the adjective merciless, my heart wrenches and yet there is a real fatal mistake we as Christians are making in the world.  If we cant take it with us, what are we doing with the time we have here – time, resources, talents.  I firmly believe God wants to bless us beyond boundaries, but just like the “wicked, lazy servant”, our opportunities will be taken away.  That’s big.  I’m not talking our $$$ will be taken if we don’t give it, or our “talents” if we don’t use them. (although a part of me might think that, too)

I’M TALKING OPPORTUNITY.  Like the God of the universe, the Creator of Creation wanting to use us.  You, Me.

And, it doesn’t always look like mud pits, Saturday morning “clean-ups”, or a trip across a big pond.  Sometimes it looks like the person standing in the elevator, or checking you out at Wal-mart, or the cubicle next to you at work. 

If grace is what we have been given, then it is ours to bestow!

Be contagious and invite people into the mercy seat!