Thinking about Mercy

Our past cannot be undone. But it can be redeemed.

I’ve been thinking a lot about mercy for the last few weeks. Mercy is who God is and what God does. And we are the conduits through which God pours mercy into this fractured world. But that’s sort of abstract, so let me show you what I mean with a story. The story of Paul.

Back when people called him Saul, Paul was a law-and-order kind of guy. For instance, he looked on approvingly while a mob stoned Stephen to death. In Paul’s view, Stephen had it coming. He was a committed member of the heretical Jesus sect.

Photo by Anthony Tori on Unsplash

The Sanhedrin had put Stephen on trial for blasphemy. And instead of defending himself, Stephen scolded his judges for failing to recognize that Jesus was the Messiah…