The God Impulse By Jack Alexanderنموونە

Day Seven

Hand in Hand

Scripture: Micah 6:8

When we truly engage in mercy, we enter into someone’s story, as messy and uncomfortable as it may feel at first. And to engage in relational mercy—to see and feel, go, and do—means we might not just enact a little change in a hurting world, but we might change too. When we’re merciful, we open ourselves up to feeling like we’ve never felt before. And it’s not just love we feel; we also feel rage. Rage at the world’s most horrific injustices. 

Mercy is inextricably linked to justice. The prophet Micah writes that the Lord requires us “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8 KJV, emphasis added). 

Mercy and justice go hand in hand. We’re supposed to act in accordance with God’s perfect justice, even as we try to show mercy to God’s imperfect creations. We need to embrace hard questions about what policies and initiatives have been in place that contribute to chronic poverty and a lack of education. Our hearts of mercy must be incensed over individual and systemic injustices. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”

The problems can feel overwhelming. Injustice, particularly institutional injustice, seems almost impossible to combat. We face our own doubts. Our own fears. What if I fail? we think to ourselves. 

Sometimes it seems easiest to not even try. 

I think about the Samaritan, leaning beside that broken traveler. Snapped bones, perhaps. Blood everywhere. The man was half dead; it wouldn’t take much to push him all the way. 

It must’ve been bewildering to look at the man’s injuries. He didn’t have a medic to triage the situation. Where do I start? the Samaritan might’ve wondered. So many urgent needs, so little time. 

But he tackled the situation anyway. The Samaritan’s mercy wasn’t dammed by doubts or fears or anger. It flowed. Mercy’s tough. Frustrating. We have no guarantee of 

success.

But you know something? Even when we fail, God can work through us. When we follow God’s impulse, we must see. We must go. We must do. But nowhere does it say we must succeed. Ultimately, God has that covered. And in that, I rejoice. 

Why do mercy and justice go together?