The Beatitudes: Global Perspectives on the Way of JesusSample

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” 

Have you ever chosen to forgive someone who has hurt you over and over? Or someone who never asked for forgiveness at all? It’s probably one of the toughest things we’ll do in our relationships with one another.  

Forgiveness can sometimes feel like pulling the prickles of a weed out of our hands. Even after we choose to remove the thorn, we’re left with a throbbing pain afterward. This is mercy in action—it chooses reconciliation over division, even if the healing doesn’t come right away. 

One of the hardest things about mercy and forgiveness is that it is vulnerable. It’s a choice we make. It requires us to open ourselves up again. To tear our walls down. To walk on.  

We see this perfectly exemplified in Christ. “While we were still sinners,” the scriptures say, “Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God chose to show us mercy we didn’t deserve while we were still in the darkness. We choose to forgive others because God forgave us first. It is a response to the great love we’ve already been given in Christ. 

Christine was just four years old when she lost her parents in the Rwandan genocide. She vividly remembers running from the rebels with her mom. When they caught up with them, Christine’s mother urged her to run free. While running away, Christine witnessed her mother get shot.  

As she grew more into herself, her faith, and her passions, through her time with Compassion and her life at home with her aunt and grandparents, Christine’s aspiration became to change the tide of society around her—to instill lasting hope. To forgive and move forward into a life of radical reconciliation powered by her consistent love for others. 

After accepting Jesus in her teenage years, Christine decided—by God’s grace—to forgive the people who murdered her parents. 

Mercy requires a large heap of strength, for both the big and the small hurts of life. Think about any fractured relationships you might have in your life today. Where can you choose to extend radical mercy? Ask God to guide you and give you the strength to choose forgiveness. 

Prayer:  

God of mercy, you are the ultimate example of what mercy looks like. While we were still sinners, you chose to die for us. What greater mercy is there than this? I pray that you would free my soul to choose this kind of radical mercy, even when it feels vulnerable and even if I don’t ever receive an apology. It is difficult, but there is a beautiful freedom in choosing mercy. Amen.