I'm getting ON the band wagon, yall. A few days ago one of my congregants posted something on Facebook about taking one word and making it your focus all year long. This was supposed to be more meaningful than some kind of New Years resolution that was bound to fail. And you know what? I buy it. I buy it because I think going deep on something, on one thing, is better than being surface with lots of things. So I'm on it. I'm doing it.
Mercy.
Wayne Muller was my spiritual director for a while. And because he's brilliant and bold, he clued in to my need for mercy (as a person, pastor, world-view, practice, concept, etc) right away. I, on the other hand, fought the notion tooth and nail. Why? Because all my life my judgment (as opposed to mercy) has been the source of my strength and positive feedback from others. I'm able to spot dynamics and call them out like the survivor of dysfunctional systems that I am. What I've not been able to master is how to receive those systems with the mercy they need to be transformed. I'm also, obviously as an extension of this lack of merciful receptivity with others, not very merciful with myself. Which it turns out, sucks. Mercy is a necessary condition of love. I think. I think I know.
So, this is the year, yall. I'm going all in.
Looking for it. Trying it out. Listening to it. Seeking it. Practicing. Writing. Delivering. Receiving.
2014: The Year of Mercy. Go.
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