Now Is the Time: Devotions From Time of Graceনমুনা

Mercy

It is the lowest point on the face of the earth: 1,388 feet below sea level. Freshwater flows in, but nothing flows out, and so the salinity levels are off the charts. It is a small body of water eight times saltier than the oceans. No animal life is possible in it, and so it has been given the name Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea only takes. It gives nothing and only reluctantly surrenders its water to the steady evaporation of desert heat. Dead also describes the condition of a human soul that only takes and never wishes to give, where resources flow in and nothing flows out. “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered” (Proverbs 21:13).

Everything we have is a gift, a loan, from the great Giver. Everything we have is because he is generous, not because we are so brilliant. Everything we have is a careful investment from heaven to see if we will choose willingly and joyfully to become part of God’s agenda.

Every one of us has opportunities to relieve human suffering around us. We have been given mercy so that we might show mercy. We have been blessed in order to be a blessing. May the angels call you a “Living Sea.”