There is a true story told of a very
athletic young man that rode a bus one day. Behind him were two rowdy
men harshly behaved.
He was brown-skinned, they were pale
and this was Pre-Civil Rights Movement.
The two harassed him throughout the
entire bus ride: taunting and mocking him anyway they could imagine.
By the time the athlete had reached his stop, he'd endured
much verbal assault.Before stepping off, he reached into his coat
pocket and handed them his business card.
It read:
JOE LOUIS
Professional Boxer
Real strength: showing mercy
when you can just as easily crush someone.
Wielding strength for your
own good is kind of like driving an SUV, it can be very easy to
do—just run people over. But as followers of Christ, we have two
major mandates: Love God and Love People (Mark 12:30-31),
demonstrating appropriate mercy does both.
In 1 Samuel 24, David, the
prophesied king of Israel, is running for his life from his former
boss, Saul. Saul has thrown spears at him and threatened his life on
numerous occasions. One day David finds Saul by himself, just minding
his own business—an easy target. His fellow warriors tell him its
just God 's favor. But instead of giving himself an easy victory and
way out of stress, David shows Saul mercy, he even falls down before
Saul on his knees!
“May the Lord judge
between me and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand
shall not be against you.”
-1 Samuel 24:12
No matter where you are
today, there will always be people below you and people above you, in some
aspect. The tendency is to destroy the lowers to show off to the
uppers, but that's not how Jesus Christ did it.
Follow Jesus.
Welcome to the Upside Down
Kingdom.
In Him,
Jean-Marc
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