I'm driving to work this morning, off in my own little world. I think I was actually having an imaginary conversation (out loud - hand gestures and all) with someone I don't really want to talk to. As I'm driving along talking animatedly, all of a sudden I notice a police car parked on a side street just to my right, looking right at me. I look down at the speedometer and I'm going 42 in a 35. I know I'm about to get totally busted.
As I pass the officer, I make eye contact and actually mouth the words, "Sorry" to him. Because that will help, right? I drive on past, just waiting for him to pull out behind me with lights on.
But he doesn't. He let me go. (See - saying sorry DOES help!) I could barely believe it. The cop showed me mercy.
Not 2 blocks later, as I'm very carefully driving the speed limit, I get passed by another car who was probably going at least 43. And, I'm not kidding, my first thought as I watch the guy pass me is, "Where's a cop when you need one?"
I get shown mercy and not 30 seconds later want to see someone else denied that very same mercy.
Well, at that point I'm feeling a little ashamed of myself, when all of a sudden I realize that this is exactly what we do in the church. All too often, we are quite content to enjoy our church experience and we just don't make much of an effort to invite others to come and taste and see the goodness of life with Christ. We've been shown incredible mercy by God and we don't care much if others get to experience that mercy too.
The real measure of our gratitude for what God has done is what we then do in response.
Because God has shown us so much grace and mercy, may we be compelled to invite others into that same experience of grace and mercy.
