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| Apache Speed Trap |
Our need for mercy is essential if we are to be
grateful for grace. Having tried to make that point in several ways, the
question that remains is, How do I allow
God’s Spirit to cultivate an appetite for mercy?
The answer, I believe, is to let God show us our
heart. The writer of Psalm 139 expressed it best: “Search me, O God, and know my thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.”
One way to do this is to examine our reactions
to others when they do something which causes us to wish they would “pay” for
what they’ve done. I suggest this for two reasons.
First, Jesus warned that the judgment we use against someone is the judgment God will use in evaluating us. This was not a call to tolerate wrongdoing. It was a call to evaluate how we evaluate wrongdoing. Which leads to the second reason.
Jesus warned us to take care of our own eye problem before scoping out someone else’s eye. I believe it can be argued that the “speck”
we see in someone else’s eye may be God’s way of exposing a massive obstruction in our own.
For example: a car passes us well above the
speed limit. Our response? Where are the police when we need ‘em.” Several
miles later, deep in thought and well above the speed limit, we crest a hill
and find a patrolman waiting. Our first thought is NOT, “Praise the Lord, the
police are on the job.”
The issue God has just revealed is not our
speeding. The issue is what Paul Harvey called “selective righteousness”
- our deeply flawed self-justification in areas where we wish He would throw
the book at others.
God! Be merciful to me, the sinner!
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