Kelly's Corner: The Gift of Mercy

I recently heard a story which truly exemplified a beautiful picture of both mercy and grace. Our church has been sending a team to San Quinten, Mexico in the Baja every year for the past 10 years to work with an organization called One Life One Chance. Each year the mission is to build a house for an impoverished family.

It is the responsibility of the church team to raise the funds for their trip costs and the building supplies and our teams always goes a step further and completely stocks the house with food, linens, dishes, beds, dressers and everything needed for a household. For the receiving family it is like winning the lottery! As you can well imagine it takes those with the gift of mercy to package the whole experience in mercy and grace so the family although showered with blessing are able to retain their dignity.

It’s our tradition to set aside a Sunday morning service for the Mexico team to share their experiences upon their return. The team shared on July 12th. One particular story spoke to my heart deeply. The team was asked to visit the local garbage dump in San Quinten and bring food for the people living there. A few teenagers and adults stepped up for this opportunity. These volunteers were instructed beforehand by One Life One Chance staff, to be very careful about their comments and attitudes while at the dump, keeping in mind that the families and individuals actually lived there. What struck me most was that the team was further instructed not to wait for the people to come to them for the food and provisions but to walk through the trash to go to the people. What a beautiful picture of mercy in action.

God’s kingdom is an upside down kingdom. God’s heart is for the poor, the suffering, the downcast. Jesus Himself came down to our earth and became one of us to pay our debt. He came to the earth, this place we’ve trashed, polluted and shamed by sin, and He walks over to us, He offers us the bread of life, Himself. Jesus modeled for us the perfect picture of dignity and mercy so undeserved. I’m so thankful that Jesus wasn’t afraid of my mess when He called me and that He continues to walk through the messes of life with me.

Who might God call you to show mercy to today? Whether the spiritual gift of mercy is one of your top giftings or not, there are people all around us today that are desperately in need of mercy. Will you be the hands, feet and heart of Jesus to someone today?

#KellyRader #KellysCorner #giftofmercy