passion @ uwa

Let's shake things up a little. In the chapter, Pastor Holladay (P.Holla) didn't quite differentiate mercy from grace, but I will.

At the risk of sounding like a broken recorder, or worse, an old lady, I'll iterate the time-honored and commonly borrowed phrase that:

Sounds a tad iffy doesn't it? Ok, let's elaborate with a ridiculous example.

Grace is akin to you, randomly turning up at my doorsteps bearing a cup of yummy bubble tea, even though I did nothing to earn this blessing. Mercy is when, say, I stupidly spill the entire cup of deliciousness on your brand new Paul Smith loafers, and instead of giving me a couple of well-deserved smacks across the head with your newly-soiled shoes, you forgive me, and then go on to offer me your own original milk tea with fig jelly. All these, with a warm, unwavering smile on your face, and a golden halo above your head.

I hope that made it clearer for you. Mercy is really quite closely related to forgiveness. Moving on now... and because I like to unnecessarily involve others in my own reflection/ thinking process... I'd like to throw out a rhetorical statement to you.

Hands up, those who are perfect! (Josh Lim, put that hand down now. Sheesh...)

Right. Like I said, this is purely rhetorical because we already know that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". Sure, some of us are pretty darn close to perfection (Yea...I'm guilty as charged here) but well, there is only one perfect man and His name is J... Jesus.

Now, hold that thought in your heads for a bit while we go back to the book. P. Holla said that at the crux of it, we've "got one of two choices... grateful you've lived a more moral life than most other people... or... grateful for how much you have been forgiven"

I don't know about you, but I choose the latter.

Above all, God's mercy has always been a topic that's particularly dear to my heart, simply because I've experienced so much of it through the dumb choices that I've made in this imperfect journey that I call my Life. I mean, take exams for example. While others are mostly praying for God's grace to help them do the rest when they've already studied their very best, I'm often left in a crumpled heap, desperately begging for God to show mercy and help me to at least pass the paper, even though I did not study for it.

And I could go on and on.

Is it obvious that I'm smoking my way through this post? To be honest, I find it really hard to talk about something such as mercy. How do I articulate something which I am convinced, has to come as a personal revelation? How do I express, in limited words, the depth of what mercy means to me? How do I help others understand what mercy is when I am still learning and discovering more of it in my life everyday?

Like what Pastor Holladay said, "the secret to a heart of mercy is in seeing - really seeing - God's mercy toward you". We see this in King David. I love King David. When I think of him, I imagine a man, so immensely flawed (well hello? he committed adultery, killed a man, etc.), and yet, so tenderhearted and loving. I imagine a merciful king who was quick to forgive a man called Shimei despite the rebellion and dangers posed by this renegade. I imagine a merciful father who lovingly forgave his son Absalom despite him waging a civil war against his own father! (Go read 2 Samuel. There's some seriously moving stuff in there.)

I am convinced that King David's merciful nature flowed freely from his own experiences with God's forgiveness towards him.

It is hard for me (and probably not my place) to point out the extent of anyone's sins, nor can I quantitatively express the intensity of God's grace. This is something you have to realize for yourselves. For me, the more I saw how good God is, the more I saw how sinful I really am. And each time, without fail, I fall on my knees, floored in amazement and thankfulness at how someone like Him, can love (and forgive) someone like me. After all, "What is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him?" (Psa 8:4).

And all of a sudden, nothing else seem to matter anymore. The unkind words someone hurled at me. The group member that ran away leaving me to do all the work. And heaps more small grievances that now seem so trivial.

I can forgive and love them, because I too, am forgiven and loved.

Before I finally stop yapping on and on, I'd like to quote Gandhi (there's nothing like borrowing someone else's wisdom to appear profound).

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong.”

The truth is, we are all weak-willed creatures. Thankfully, God isn't quite like us. So when you feel hard-pressed to forgive and show mercy to anyone at all, remember that His strength, as with His grace and mercy, is there for the claiming!

Let's love, because He first loved us.


Be blessed!
(His mercies are new every morning!)