My rock: Offer mercy and grace
Read this week’s column by Joey Haynes of The Church at Rome.
Every day I see it: my rock. I picked it up off the ground, wrote my name on it and now, each day, it reminds me … but we will get to that in a moment. I’ve never really been a bad guy. I’ve never cheated on my wife, haven’t been in a real fight since sixth grade and I didn’t lie to my Mama when I was a teenager.
During the earliest years of my walk with God, I was pretty good at letting others know how my high standard of moral living made me better than them. Maybe not with words, but definitely through my attitude towards them. And many of us Christians are good at that, aren’t we? Pointing out the sins of others.
The world is full of flawed people. And the flaws of others make it easy to cast judgment; to crown ourselves as spiritual elites. But there is this Book and this Man. And when I really started to read the Book and take it seriously, what I learned about the Man, knocked me off my judgement throne.
The Book reminded me that this Man hung out with people who were thieves and adulterers.
This Book also challenged my imagined status as a spiritual elite when I read Luke 6:36-38 “You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven … The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”
I gave a lot of thought to this passage. I had crowned myself a world class judge of other people’s actions, but where was my compassion towards others? These words kept coming back to me, “The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”
How many times had I looked down on another or silently offered judgement? Compassion? What’s that again?
I now understand my own flaws, my need for mercy and grace, and desperately desire both.
Although, for years, I did not offer mercy and grace as I should have, luckily, I fell in love with and married a woman who is grace and mercy. She has helped me understand mercy and grace, mainly by being compassionate towards me. But back to the rock. In the home I share with the woman who is grace and mercy, I have an office. Within that office is a desk with a rock sitting upon it. My rock reminds me as I am tempted to cast a stone of judgment, to instead offer mercy and grace upon liars, politicians and SEC football referees!
I have found that it’s a lot easier to remember to show grace over judgment when you are a minister who understands his need for grace, who is thankful for second chances, and who daily receives reminders from a rock that has his name on it.