A Shocking Post

I'm tired and I should really be sleeping...but I'm feeling a little reflective, or maybe it's just chatty...you decide.

A morning in my life:
Every morning my alarm goes off and every morning I hit the snooze and roll over for another 5 minutes.
Weird, I know.  I could very well just set my alarm for 5 minutes later and pop up the moment I hear that 'wonderful' noise aptly named alarm.  It's a mind game for me, I'm sure some of you can relate.

From there I stumble to my bathroom and try my hardest to not stub my toe or hit my head on the medicine cabinet.  For those of you who have lived with me, you can picture me doing these things with my hair sticking out of the side of my head and my eyes barley open to a squint.  I try to jump in the shower as soon after finding the hot/cold knobs as possible.

Now I'm awake and can go about getting ready for my day.

Part of this morning routine is breakfast while reading through a page in The Daily God Book.  Today’s page was about David…monumental man o’ God… messed up human… amazing story.

Here is the part that has resonated with me through my day; (David) Exhibit(ed) the shocking virtue of mercy.

Whoa!!!???  What!!!???  Time out!!

I don’t get it…what’s so profound about that?

This was my first thought, why is that so profound?  I think after a little time thinking however, I’ve pinpointed why I think it’s profound.

The language that is used is profound, listen; shocking virtue of mercy.

Why is it that today mercy is a shocking virtue?  Why does that have to be true of us?  Call me an idealist, but wouldn’t it be nice if it were commonplace to show and be shown mercy?

In the case of David, his life was being pursued by Saul.  Saul wanted him dead.  At one point in the story, Saul happened to stumble into a cave while in the desert.  It just so turns out this is the exact cave where David was hiding with his men from Saul (imagine the odds!).  Saul finds a rock in the corner and ‘relieves’ (snicker, snicker) himself.  David is so close to Saul while Saul is in this vulnerable situation, but instead of ending Saul(smacking him down like the hand of God), David cuts off a corner of his robe in order to show Saul that he is not out to harm him, but instead shock him with mercy.

David trusted God to work it out in His divine timing and what David didn’t know is that God was going to use that exact event to teach this dense girl from rural Iowa thousands of years later about mercy.  David not only showed Saul, the subject of his mercy, that we was merciful but he showed the men whom he was leader over that there is a place in this world for shocking virtues.  He showed me that there is a place in this world for shocking virtues.

I think about the people I interact with everyday and I see ideals ingrained into so many of us: look out for #1; you snooze, you loose; kick em while their down; it’s lonely at the top, etc..  Those things are the reason why it is a shocking virtue to show mercy.  It makes me sad that this is true.  It makes me sad that I buy into those ideals.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I wish it weren’t so shocking to do the right thing.

I hope that when someone (I don’t know who would ever do this) sits down and looks at my life, it’s shocking…in a good way.  :)