I suppose it’s inevitable that, having grown up in the ’80s/’90s, there is occasionally going to be a day when all I can say by the end of it is: “Have mercy…” – and that I will totally (<– see what I just did there?) hear the voices of Jesse Katsopolis and Joey Gladstone in my head when I say it.
So much of the past two weeks have been characterized/influenced/impacted by both internal and external stressors, and mercy is the first word I thought of when I sat down to write about some of it.
Oh, dear Jesus – how much I need your mercy.
And yet, it occurred to me just now that my definition of mercy and His may just be the slightest bit different.
photo courtesy of ©Depositphotos.com / realinemedia
To me, “mercy” – in this particular moment – could mean: “nothing else going wrong or being difficult this week (or, you know, for, like, ever. no, really. i mean, like, forever…)”
(and if I’m going to be completely transparent – it could, on various other occasions, also mean: “a financial windfall” or “solutions to all my problems delivered in a neat little package” or “everyone intuitively understanding me at all times without any explanations that might be helpful to them – ever.”)
But to Jesus, being merciful probably means something a lot more along the lines of how various online dictionaries define it: showing compassionate forbearance, or having a benevolent disposition towards kindness and forgiveness.
Or, to put it more bluntly: making sure I don’t ever get what I really deserved before He saved me from it.
Which is a bit of a far cry from what I was thinking when my first thought was “have mercy…”
And yet, at the end of the day, I will still say, “have mercy…” – and I will mean both kinds of mercy.
Because I need the kind of mercy Jesus gives and because Jesus wants the kind of honesty that my definition of mercy (however flawed) brings to our conversations.
And because, in truth, whether what my definition represents is actually “mercy” or not – when I sat down tonight and said, “Have mercy…” – I really meant to ask for everything.
What about you? When you ask for mercy, what does that look like for you?
