Paradise Regained: April 2008

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Mercy, cont'd

This bit is hodgepodge at its finest. A running dialogue if you will....

What does mercy look like when it's given to those who don't know they're in desperate need of it. If Christ died for me, did I as a young child know I needed it? No, but I know it now even if I had never been told it would save me. Something deep within me knows this world is not put to rights and I enmeshed in that. Putting me back to rights is happening right now and mercy given to the naive is doing that.

If you didn't know you needed mercy and you received it, can you fully embrace what you've been given? Or should that person offer up forgiveness without informing you? I would think that if you forgive someone (are merciful), you should not inform them if they do not know what they have done. I imagine that being a little awkward. Although, if I parked in someone's spot at work and heard about it from someone else and the person in whose parking spot I placed my car has not mentioned anything, just then I've been given mercy that I didn't know I needed and I am very grateful. Does that bode the same if it's a person I don't like? I say yes.

14 words.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Mercy.

Can one comprehend mercy? What does mercy look like? What does it feel like? What does the person giving it (0r God) gain? How do they feel? It's not free, there is a cost to the one bestowing it. What is that cost to the person; not the Greatest Debt Paid but the internal emotional or even literal cost?

For the person asking it and hopefully receiving it, mercy is life. Mercy feels like clear, clean, crisp water for a parched tongue. Mercy feels like true love. Mercy is the key that unlocks the chains that have us constricted and breathless. Mercy is the sword that slices through our fetters. When I'm asking for mercy, my heart and soul are in anguish. The muscles around them seize up and restrict all of my abilities. When the words of mercy are given, my lungs swell and my soul breathes the deepest breaths it can handle. When the words of mercy are given, sometimes I don't want to know the cost to the other person; the cost when I must give mercy is the torment of the soul for the time leading up to the gift. I would avoid causing anything that would require mercy as I know that process they must go through. Mercy is a great love.

*nota bene: do those who give mercy in the justice system and do those mechanically give mercy realize they are loving that person? Every act of mercy is an act of love. I wonder how many do not realize how much they are loving?*

More to come...