Idaho faith: Ask God to forgive, and show mercy while granting others past mistakes

A football coach was fired from his position because of a racist remark he supposedly made many years before. A political candidate had to withdraw from the campaign because of a report about something they allegedly did as a teenager. And many people have refused to seek positions of service, even though they are imminently qualified, because they do not wish to take the chance at being scrutinized and accused.

It doesn’t seem to matter whether the accusations are true or false. The possibility of such exposure can be enough to ruin the reputations of many good people.

With the advent of social media, the scrutiny of people’s past has become the favorite sport of some. And the anonymity provided by the internet gives a certain protection from accountability. Sometimes just creating a rumor or an insinuation is all that is needed to torpedo dreams and current possibilities. The underlying innuendo is that the past always defines the present and the future.

As I have watched the scrutiny, microscopic examination and damage, I have become aware of a total lack of mercy in our culture. There seems to be no room for someone to change their views, their attitudes or actions as they try to grow in maturity. Would the reporter like to have their life placed under the same microscope they are using on someone else? What kind of world are we creating in which there is no mercy, no room for change?

It is interesting to note that in his “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5:7, Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” That is the only “beatitude” where a person receives exactly what they have given out. If we don’t extend mercy to others, we cannot expect to receive any mercy from them when we need understanding and compassion. We reap what we sow.

Mercy is the kindness where God creates a junction in the road of life where his grace can give us the power to change, even turn completely around and go in the opposite direction. In fact, that is the whole concept behind the word “repentance.” It means a complete “about face” in military parlance. A change of values and thinking can be as great a miracle as someone rising from the dead! Biblically, it is possible for someone, so stained by the sins of their past, to ask God (and others) for forgiveness, and receive the grace to live a completely new life.

In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus told about a tax collector, so overwhelmed with the guilt of his past that he could not lift his head in prayer. He had the courage to utter only seven words: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” Jesus said this man went to his house “justified,” or cleared of all sins of his past.

For some of us, it hardly seems fair to release a man from his past, simply by saying seven words in prayer. That’s not “cheap grace,” because God Himself would pay the price for the sins of all men, through the death of Jesus on the cross. All we have to do is place our faith in what God has done for us, and ask him to forgive us.

In the “Beatitudes,” Jesus did not say, “Blessed are the pure in history,” because no one is pure in history. He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart!” That is our condition after forgiveness.

Would you like to live in a merciless world, where there was no possibility of change, where you could never get away from your past? Or does your heart deeply desire for a place of grace, the junction of mercy, where change is possible? If you want a place of mercy, you must extend mercy to others. Because you always get what you give!

Loren A. Yadon is pastor of New Life Fellowship of Boise. The Idaho Statesman’s weekly faith column features a rotation of writers from many different faiths and perspectives.