What does it look like to show mercy to someone? It’s helping someone out that is in a tough spot. It could be welcoming someone into your circle of friends because they are lonely. Maybe it’s giving a hurting person the gift of your time. Or even more difficult, extending forgiveness to someone who hasn’t asked for it. Mercy is a costly thing to give. But there is one thing that can very quickly extinguish mercy from our hearts. It’s the mercy blocker: self-righteousness. It’s too easy to feel no compulsion to show mercy, when I can so easily make a case that someone doesn’t deserve it. But when we encounter Jesus, we cannot help but Encounter Mercy.
