"Don't you know it's a slippery slope."
Thinking in terms of the Mercy we all want from God and each other, as opposed to the Justice we expect for everyone else can be a little dangerous. Before we know it, we're also talking about compassion, forgiveness and peace. Mercy breeds and attracts these things like watermelon attracts flies.
From Mercy's point of view, life is about three things: People, People and People. Life is specifically not about conquest, accumulation of stuff, pleasure (or pain), winning, building empires, being important or any other thing. It's about people.
The heart of mercy sees through the actions and circumstances that surround a person and sees the person as a being created by a loving God in a spirit of joyful anticipation of a magnificent, eternal, meaningful destiny. When the outcome in someone's life is inconsistent with that vision, mercy always believes that the disparity between someone's actions or circumstances and the actual person is caused and propagated by some fundamental error or tragedy.
But oddly, mercy has no effect at all on the people it longs to reach. Mercy works its magic only on those who are sensitive to its call. Mercy drives us to reach through the disparity, into the darkness and fire, and address the people impacted by such negative outcomes and do something. even something miraculous, to make people's lives better in some meaningful way. Mercy motivates us to acts of compassion. Mercy breaks our hearts and pushes us to find a way to make a positive difference in our world.
So mercy takes root inside of us, and before you know it we're busy carrying out acts of compassion toward people in need or who are hurting. We're giving to orphanages in Africa, food banks in Oklahoma, donating time, clothing, money or something anyplace we can think of that is actively trying to help others.
And then someone comes across my path that really needs me - my time, energy, perspective, wisdom or just my presence to get through an event or season in their life. Now this mercy driven compassion becomes personal and invasive, and in my experience, even life changing.
On second thought, maybe it's not that dangerous after all. It's a slippery slope I think I'm ready to slide down again. It sure beats thinking about the injustice of our justice system.