Serving God and Others: Devotions From Time of GraceНамуна

Cut ’em some slack

How I love it when people cut me some slack! When the state trooper lets me off with a warning instead of slamming me with an expensive speeding ticket . . . when my wife overlooks my grouchy remarks . . . when my coworkers cover for me and smooth over something that was my fault. Why is it so hard for me to do that for others?

Maybe it’s because I don’t want to enable bad behavior in others. Maybe it’s because I am so doggone insecure that I think I stand a little taller if I cut other people down to size. Maybe it’s because I feel morally superior when I can catch people in their sins and gloat an internal “Aha!”

My Savior Jesus made the supreme sacrifice of bearing the wrath of God for human sin in his holy body for one purpose and one purpose only--to purchase for me the forgiveness of my sins. It is he who now commissions me to be his agent, his broker, in sharing that forgiveness with the people around me. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7).

Perhaps I’m afraid that if I do that I will weaken the rules. Jesus wants me to know that when I do that, I open the floodgates of his mercy coming down over my head. Who in your life needs your mercy today?