This blog is a little peek into my "quiet time" for the past week. Hopefully it'll help someone as it has helped me.

"...You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy." -Micah 7:18 (NIV)

Read that again. God delights to show mercy. Do you?
I know I don't always jump at the chance to be merciful. In fact, I usually think to myself something along the lines of, "Wow, that person sure is lucky that I'm showing them a little mercy right now. If I wanted to, I could totally rip them a new one." Or, I will "forgive" someone, but never truly let the grudge go.

For example, here's what happened to me yesterday:
Scenario #1:
I went to Office Max. I didn't bother with a cart, just thought I'd make a quick trip in. So, I'm standing at the checkout, juggling an armload of stuff & waiting for the person in front of me. All of a sudden, 'Mr. Rude' comes out of nowhere and totally cuts me off in line! Did I say anything? Nope. I'm merciful, right? Evidently, this "gentlemen" has a busier schedule than me, so I let it go.

Scenario #2:
I follow up my Office Max trip with a stop at the dreaded post office. (I mean, have you ever had to stand in line at the post office? Bleccchhh.) I'm walking in, and this lady comes swooping in from the other direction and scoots her way in front of me without giving me a 2nd glance. Ugh! Twice in one day I get cut off in standing in line within 30 minutes of each other? Grrrrr... Do I say anything to said lady? No. See reason above.

Scenario #3:
I was cut off in traffic by a big freakin' truck while I'm driving in my little Ford Escort 4-cylinder glorified Go-Kart (on a gravel road in a construction zone with my kids in the car, to add a few more things to be pissed about and not-so-merciful).

Am I ever like God, who actually finds it a delight to show mercy? I mean, when you are showing mercy, doesn't that mean someone has wronged you somehow? How can we delight in that? We've all heard the saying "forgive, but not forget", but what if being merciful means you have to completely wipe the "wrongs" from your memory? Maybe you can't forgive until you forget.

Psalm 103:12 says this is how God shows mercy to us: "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."

In other words, He forgets our transgressions! How does He do it? I choose to think it's through a LOVE we cannot comprehend. See, Jesus LOVES us MORE than we can fathom, and He proved it by dying for us.

"It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people..."
-Hebrews 10:14 (The Message)

God knows we are imperfect. He knows we will fail time & time again, and we will do things without thinking about them, or caring how our actions affect other people. He knows that some days I'm the rude lady at the post office. And He shows me mercy even when I am unmerciful toward others. The next time you run across another imperfect person who needs your forgiveness, maybe you should try doing what God does... and just fuhgeddabouddit.

So I've been thinking a lot lately about the fact that life is short. Probably because I just heard this awesome talk about it during the first week of The Crossing's MIST series. I know I need to get back on track with eating healthy and exercising. It's been too long. Too many excuses. Too many "I'll start tomorrow's". There are things I want to accomplish and, if I'm honest about it, these things are not going to be as easy to do if I remain the way I am right now.

This whole series is based off of this scripture:
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
-James 4:13-17

OUCH! Did you read what that just said? Anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. We do not know if we have tomorrow. I don't know the future and neither do you. I want to live my life to the FULLEST while I'm here. That means no more of this waiting-around-being-lazy-waiting-for-my-problem-to-take-care-of-itself stuff. I KNOW the good I ought to do. I'm just not doing it. Until now. I can start right this minute. So can you! Do you know something you ought to be doing that you aren't doing? Maybe you should make a budget. Call someone up and apologize. Forgive someone you're holding a grudge against. Brush your teeth. I don't know what your "thing" is, but I know we've all got a "thing". You aren't guaranteed tomorrow. Don't waste your life, for you are a mist.