Mercy Always Comes Running!

"So, what's your spiritual gift?"
We were in a ministry team strategy session with two new team members. Each one of us had taken a spiritual gifts inventory "test." Now we were sharing the results and planning for ministry together.
"Mercy, yes, mercy is my spiritual gift." The gift of mercy is on the Romans 12 list, verse 8.
What is the gift of mercy? What does it do?
One definition I found that is helpful to me:

Mercy: "The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to feel genuine empathy and compassion for individuals (both Christian and non-Christian) who suffer from distressing physical, mental, or emotional problems, and to translate that compassion into cheerfully done deeds which reflect Christ’s love and alleviate the suffering."
This gift is a practical gift. Those with this gift find themselves visiting and assisting those in need, and often feel the pain of the person they are helping within themself. People with this gift find it extremely difficult not to help those who seem less fortunate than themself. Those with this gift generally enjoy helping those with physical or mental problems and do well in ministries involving visiting hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and shut-ins. ... Note: The gifts of Helps, Mercy, and Service are often confused. Helps focuses on Christian works and freeing others to accomplish their God-given ministries. Mercy focuses on people in distress and reflects God’s love and compassion. Service focuses on accomplishing little tasks that may otherwise go undone in order to move the greater goal of the ministry or church toward completion.(1)

Time passed. We continued together as a ministry team and I saw how this "mercy gift" worked. It was all about the person with the "gift"! It only worked in public venues so everyone noticed! It wasn't so much about getting under the load of another person's pain as it was about getting the details of that person's pain.

That was a long time ago. Over the years of continuing ministry I have contemplated the gift of mercy. John and I are "neck deep" in church planting (www.arestorationchurch.org) with a special heart for families and individuals with special needs. That - more often than not - gets us almost over our heads in the deep waters of loving and serving others. It means a lot of "mercy-comes-running" ministry!

"Mercy-comes-running" ministry doesn't happen on a convenient schedule.
"Mercy-comes-running" ministry is messy!
"Mercy-comes-running" ministry is exhausting and breaks our hearts!
"Mercy-comes-running" ministry is a heaven-sent privilege to participate in the pain of others - mostly behind the scenes, unheralded.
"Mercy-comes-running" ministry is that often secret and frequently seemingly impossible mission Jesus modeled so well and calls us to join Him in being and doing.

I love Pastor Tullian's phrase, "Mercy comes running!" Mercy DOES come running! That's what Jesus did! That's what He calls us to do! That's who He calls us to be - little mercy-givers who come running!

Lord Jesus, help me to be "mercy-comes-running" in skin today for You!

*title "borrowed" from Pastor Tullian Tchividjian's blogpost on 9/26/2011.
(1) from Gifted2Serve and BuildingChurch.net

God's Heart for Me

The amazing truth that liberates and baths my heart in grace is that I don't have to work and struggle to reach up to God. I don't have to strain and stress over getting my own heart where I need to be before the face of God. I don't have to scratch and scrape around the "barnyard" of God's Kingdom finding my own way, meeting my own needs for life and purpose. NO! ALL God wants from me (and you) is for me to reach up to Him with an open heart and empty hands. He does ALL the rest! His heart is reaching for me long before I reach for Him. His heart longs for relationship with me! He draws my heart to His so that even when I turn to seek Him I find He's already seeking me!
Jesus came to make a terrible trade - my sin for His right-ness! Jesus brings me the double cure - a full pardon forever from both the guilt and power of sin's choke-hold on my heart!
Wow! I think I can live in that truth toady with His help! HE is enough - no matter what!

Footprints on the Heart

I don't think I would have ever stood in line to be part of a "disability ministry" even in spite of the fact that my doctors and I could make a pretty good case for my being disabled but it's in that area called "hidden disability." AND before my friends, family or even my not friends quickly say - you mean, mental - no, that's not it but enough of that!
However I find myself deeply immersed in disability ministry! God gave my husband a vision for a church intentionally started with the core value of reaching out particularly to individuals and families with special needs. I'm not the philosophical type so much as a relational servant. I spend a lot of time with the special friends I have met and come to value and love in this ministry and in my life. My life and heart are forever altered by the precious treasure of these very, very special friends!!!
Disability ministry grabs the heart! It may be costly in terms of time and energy but the joy of participating in another's struggles and pain is priceless!
These special friends have left their indelible footprints on my heart! AND that's a God thing! God sent them into my life to bless me FAR more than I can ever think of serving any of them! It is an incredible "hug" from God that my circle of friends is filled with broken people like me!

Exposure of Your Heart

Through difficult relationships and circumstances, God works to expose your heart so you will seek the grace that can only be found in Him.
--Paul Tripp

This is the day, this is the day, this is the day the Lord has made! I will rejoice and be glad!

I woke a number of times in the night fractured and worried over an email from the mother of a student yesterday criticizing my assignment (FROM LAST THURSDAY BUT NOT ADDRESSED by this parent UNTIL LATE YESTERDAY!) for today's class. "Her student isn't ready for this concept. It's too hard....................."

What happened to the days - way back when - when parents gave the teacher the benefit of the doubt almost no matter what??!! My mother even invited my 1st grade teacher - who hit my hand with a ruler because I coughed in class after she told us to be quiet - to Sunday dinner at our house! Now THAT was almost the ultimate betrayal! I couldn't believe I had to make nice with Miss Tiller and it wasn't even a school day.

Well, that day and this day and all the in-between days are days the Lord has made!

My focus THIS day is going to intentionally be: This is the day the Lord has made! I WILL rejoice and be glad! After all, I don't have to rejoice in particular circumstances. Some things that happen just stink! But knowing Jesus walks with me thru this day and that this same Jesus is also Lord of all Creation makes all the difference in the attitude of my heart!

I love to work in my yard. I enjoy the results - the flowers, the tomatoes, the healthy shrubs and trees! However in my little corner of the earth - "Steeler Land" (surburban Pittsburgh) there is a HUGE problem with gardens! O, it's not with the plants and what they grow. It's with the deer that are literally EVERYWHERE who spend their insomniac lives slithering through my yard in the night eating wherever they like.
I finally got so disgusted this summer that I resorted to moving all the hanging baskets off their hooks around the patio every night and stashing them behind the couch against the brick of the house where the deer can't get to them. They demolished an entire gorgeous basket of impatiens in one night. THEN every morning while I wait for the coffee to drip I put them all back on their hooks!
BUT they kept coming and getting whatever morsels they could find so now I have deer netting covering all the blooming borders in my flower beds! What I haven't figured out how to do yet is how to stymie the bold obese groundhog that lives under the shed next door. He loves chrysanthemums and is growing fatter by the day! Maybe he needs to get on the government's new obesity initiative! Now there's a plan................
All that to say that one thing I'm learning in all this doing battle with deer, rabbits and groundhogs is that I notice my flowers more and do whatever I can to protect them. It is the process of the battle that gives me a greater appreciation for the beauty that is left! I think there's a parable in here somewhere...........!