The Vital Force of Mercy

If there’s one fact we all learn sooner rather than later, it’s that life isn’t fair. We all have those days, those months, those years where it seems like everything is stacked against us and none of our efforts amount to much. We do our best and we come up short, over and over again. That is why mercy isn’t just a nice idea but a vital force in our lives. Just like us, everybody else is facing a world that seems out to get them, and just like us, their efforts to succeed seem just as small and ineffectual. But when we see someone in need, when we see someone with a problem that is too big for them to solve on their own, and we then lend a hand, never mind that we’ve got our own problems that are too big to solve, but if we can just lighten their load a little, then we might see them succeed for once. And as we show mercy to one another, we are more able to accept mercy when it is extended to us. We feel deep down that we should be able to handle this on our own, or we feel that we are not worthy of any kind of special break or show of decency, because too often in the past we’ve seen someone struggling and we’ve thanked God that it wasn’t us, or we’ve pointed our finger and laughed, hoping that ridiculing others would make our problems seem smaller. But when we actually help lighten the load, the Lord, who sees us acting with compassion, will give us more strength than we need to help our struggling neighbor, and that leftover strength we can use to bear the burdens we’ve been tasked to carry. We’re all out there struggling in a world that isn’t fair. We can’t change the laws of reality, but we can show mercy and accept mercy when it is bestowed upon us.