Mercy triumphs
Came across this verse in James the other week: “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom because judgement without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgement!”
The last line really struck me, like it was so definite, a fact, 100% true & real. I don’t think I’d ever noticed that verse ever before. It struck me so much that we used it as a basis for an assembly last week. Got me thinking about how different would the world be if we lived by that – if we turned the other cheek. Then I was reading an article in the Relevant print magazine (incidentally the mag is v good, & the article was written by a guy from NI!) and it cited a couple of great examples:
- Black woman in apartheid S Africa returns the spit of a white man not with her fists or by running away, but by inviting the man to spit on her children too.
- Ghandi’s supporters arrive at the police station where he is in custody demand that they by arrested too but in such huge numbers that it overwhelms the police.

Then I started thinking, wouldn’t it be amazing if when somebody slagged us off, we just laughed and went on – shook it off with a smile, totally carefree like it doesn’t matter?! Reminded me of 24-7’s “vision”:
“You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism.
They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.
They wouldn't even notice...
...They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"
...Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside.
On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide...”

Then I realised that that kind of “carefreeness” can only happen when we accept that God accepts us, when we’re secure in our identity in Him. No matter what anyone else says, we’re His children, what better status is there?

That's probably the hard part...but it works! Last Saturday night I was out for a friend’s birthday “do” with a lot of her mates. Usually I hate those kind of things – hanging out with people I don’t know that well, feeling like a real tramp because I’m wearing the same clothes I always wear, paranoid that my skin is looking more acne-scarred than usual, being in an environment where everyone is desperate to look good, desperate for acceptance, desperate to be somebody, & sharking while they're at it, dreading those questions about whether I found a man yet...But on Saturday night I was well up for it, sang my wee heart out all the way up the M1 to Delirous & Caedemon's Call, placed my hand in my Father’s and walked in with my head held high. There’s nothing to beat being God’s wee’un!

Can I be somebody?
Not what they want me to be
Just a pale reflection
Of what you want me to be
That's who I want to be
(Delirious - Mezzamorphis album)