Mercy Made the Difference For Me

From Guest Blogger: Alvin Simpson (see bio below)

Readings – DN 9:4B-10; LK 6:36-38

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning, and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

The Gospel Reading for today has taken me to being in a place of gratitude for God’s mercy shown towards me! This passage is Jesus’ instructions to the disciples. When taking it at face value my mind and spirit are immediately drawn to consider the concept of “Mercy”. What exactly is that said “mercy”? Mercy can be explained as a love that responds to human need in an unexpected or unmerited way. At the root of this concept of mercy is forgiveness. The scriptures also relate the notion of mercy beyond love and forgiveness but for today’s sharing, let’s just go with the idea that it goes beyond our human understanding.

What can we do to begin to understand the true meaning of mercy?

If we begin to browse scripture, we will find that it is replete with examples of God’s mercy towards biblical characters and if we search throughout the history of humanity, we will see that history too is full of similar examples.

Take your pick from Adam and Eve, to Cain, to Noah, to Lot or even Jacob. Any of the folks who were healed, delivered or set free by Jesus also can be referred to for an example of true mercy.

But think of this, you too are an example of the true mercy of God.

Have you ever felt that you were messed up or actually messed up so bad, that the only way to fix it or to fix you was to be made new or to start from scratch? That’s where God’s mercy towards us makes the difference.

I have been active in the church and in Ministry for as long as I can remember, but in my 36 years on God’s Earth, there have been times when I was broken, sad, depressed and couldn’t seem to be able to get it together. IN those times, I have been able to find God by falling on my face before the throne of God and just crying out to the Lord. IN those moments, I have found myself being drawn back scriptures that let me know, it’s because of “God’s mercies that (I am) not consumed”, “his mercy is new every morning, great is his faithfulness” and “before I was formed in the womb…he knew me” and had a plan for my life.

When life gets the best of me, I can often take solace in knowing that God has a plan for me. His mercy towards me has made and continues to make a difference in my life. I could have fallen, my soul could have been cast down, but God’s mercy made the difference in my life. My mistakes turned into God’s miracles, my tears turned into joy, my sins were forgiven and now I walk knowing that I am “fearfully and wonderfully made” all because God’s mercy made the difference in my life.

We are instructed as Christ’s disciples, to be merciful as Abba is merciful towards us.

What does that look like in this post-modern era we live in; where the world is hurting; where people are hurting; where social injustices are running rampant across the country and the political environment can be ultra-toxic and impede the work from being done?

What a great question to ask? What a great question to consider?

Allow mercy to make the difference in the lives of everyone you encounter. Allow the love that responds to human need in an unexpected or unmerited way to flow from you and through you. Allow that love, in its response to human need in an unexpected or unmerited way show forgiveness. That is how God is revealed and how others can fall out with the ways of the world and come over to the Lord’s side. Then it spreads from heart to heart and others can have the same report that I share with you in this moment, “Mercy Made the difference for me.”

(Besides being the amazing Director of the Spiritus Christi Gospel Choir (https://www.spirituschristi.org/people/alvin-simpson/), Alvin Simpson works as an In School Suspension Coordinator/Teaching Assistant in the RCSD and also an associate minister at Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church)