Mercy Changes Everything

 This weekend I sat at my computer, and my heart ached. Scenes of neighbor shouting against neighbor, friend divided against friend, skin-color pitted against skin-color...endless feed of human bitterness, anger, hatred. People bashing one another over religious, social, political, or other differences causing the soul-pain to run deep on all sides. 

 As I stared at the news coming out of Charlottesville, as I saw the endless string of social media posts aimed at "pointing out the truth" while making others feel stupid, as I un-followed some individuals whose angry tone I just could no longer take...I honestly felt sick. Deeply sick. 

Where in the world...in all this broken, sinful world...is grace?!

 Grace. Yes. I think we could all use a bit more of that. And not just grace given from God Himself...but the passing on of that grace to one another. When I see the worst of humanity coming out at times like this, it causes me to realize how often we make society's problems worse because we condemn instead of love, we beat down instead of raise up, we judge others instead of looking at our own selves first. We use our beliefs as a justifying reason for what we say and do but fail to notice the prideful tone in which we do them. We pray and ask God for forgiveness, yet we fail to forgive and pray for those who are in contradiction to our own convictions. We request God's grace, only to turn around and fail to give it to someone else who needs it too. More often than not, we are like the servant in the Bible who was forgiven his own debt but wouldn't forgive the debts of someone else who owed him (Matthew 18:21-35). And, in so doing, we cheapen the very thing God has given us to save us. 

  Sometimes, as His followers, we aren't very wise imitators of the One we profess to believe in. We throw around the phrase, "what would Jesus do?" but in practice, we act of our own will instead of the Savior's. And oddly enough, we feel like our Lord needs defending - like it's up to us to set the world right when, in reality, God really doesn't need us at all. The all-Sovereign God is fully capable of sorting out the issues of the world, and He chooses to use us as His living sermons to a dying culture...yet we think we must, in the name of God, fix everyone and everything. Yet, if we were truthful, we usually end up hurting more than helping God's cause. 

 It seriously pains me to watch so many people who claim to follow God shouting in the streets against the things they think God is against. And I ache inside to think of all the opportunities we're missing, of all the souls we are turning away and hardening, because we aren't willing to listen, to love, to get down into the heart-messy, to be the hands of Jesus to a world in need. We preach about how we need to go and teach nations of God's love yet...here we are: being known to our society as simply the people who are against everything instead of the ones who are for. 

 Our witness to a watching culture is being diminished more and more as they see us marching in the streets, yelling on social media about how "they're all wrong," turning away those whose hearts are broken because we simply can't figure out how to relate to them, giving the stares to those who are different from us, staying away from the uncomfortable because we're too afraid to step into that in faith. It's easier for us to do as Jesus's disciples did to call down fire and judgement on the ungodly (Luke 9:54) or to start cutting off ears as did Peter (John 18:10) than for us to put aside our emotions and simply extend grace. 

 Have we so quickly forgotten what we have received? Have we neglected to do for others what Christ selflessly did for us and demonstrated as a pattern that we should follow? Have we so soon failed to remember the simple fact that mercy changes everything? 

 After all, if it were not for God's mercy, we would not be able to experience the blessings of this one life we've been granted. God could have had His grace run out a long time ago if He had chosen to, but He continues to be patient with us as His children way beyond what we deserve. If we were to truly take this to heart, perhaps it would be easier to set self aside and learn to love deeply. Only grace can make a human being able to love and care for others who least deserve such. 

 And when we choose to picket instead of pray, to holler and shout down our opponents instead of use soft answers to turn away anger; when we take the position of know-it-alls when our Savior went to the cross and died for sinners who knew Him not, then we've failed miserably in our assignment to represent Him on earth. And people are dying in the soul because of it. People are leaving our churches because of it. People are turning away from our Jesus because of it. 

 It's time for us to stop focusing so much on setting the wrongs right and instead start embracing the lost, the broken, the least of these with the radical love of Jesus. The kind of love that takes freshly-baked muffins out to the rioting street corner and offers food and says, "You're loved." The kind of love that listens deeply and seeks to find common ground instead of staking out divisions. The kind of love that chooses the humbler path, knowing that apart from God, you would most likely be messed up too. The kind of love that remembers what it's been given and simply wants others to feel it too. That kind of love is what can set captive hearts free, open the prison soul-doors and let God's light walk in. That kind of love is what can change a church, a community, a nation, and the world. 

 Racial divides would be torn down if we only saw one another as beautiful creations of the living God, made in His image regardless of whether or not we agree. Arguments about social ills, political correctness, church doctrine, religious practice, etc would be demolished once we simply sought God's Word and way as to how to treat one another and how to fear and honor God Himself. 

 See, it's not really about the issues themselves. It's about us. Our hearts. All the ways in which broken people are trying to get along with and "fix" other broken people. And really, God is the only cure for us all. Grace and mercy must be the beginning and ending points. Otherwise, the noise and the anger only grow, the tensions rise, the hurting continues. It's high time we ask God to forgive us for going about it all so wrong. For choosing fear over faith, for taking sides instead of siding with Him, for picking fights over things that don't matter in the long run. 

 Whatever your cause is that you are engaging in, whatever outreach you are doing, whatever ministry you are taking on, whatever platform God has given you to speak truth to a world that needs to hear about Him...tread carefully how you go about it. Criticizing, judging, making fun of, condemning, picketing, shouting, defending are not the way to bring God's love to a hurting world. Showing grace in the little things as well as the big is. 

Just keep God big in view, and yourself small, and all will right itself. God will go before you and give you words to speak in the moments you need to speak them. God will prepare hearts to receive as you listen to and act on His direction. Because this fight isn't really yours at all. It's His. 

 So please...stop the arguing on social media, stop picketing in the streets, and shouting at your neighbors and enemies, stop taking your causes so seriously that you leave God out. Stop taking on the mountains of falsehood and simply asking God to come along when all God really wants from you is humble, faithful, loving service. Just accept and give grace. And God will take care of the rest.