On Mercy
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| From the city of Warren webpage |
Today I was volunteering at The Crossing* in Warren. They're open during the day for the first time...maybe ever, I don't know. We got pretty busy for lunch - a bunch of people all came in basically at once and mostly ordered stuff to go because they had relatively short lunch breaks. Folks were pretty gracious considering the kitchen at the Crossing isn't McDonalds fast, if you get my meaning.
So, parking in Warren isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world if you need to park more than two hours at a time. Here's the thing - it's "zoned"** (check out the picture) green and, um, something else, and you can only park 2 hours at a time in a given zone - then you have to move to the other zone or you get a ticket.*** There are a few metered spaces - twenty-five cents for thirty minutes. Not too bad. Dunno how many times they'll let you feed those meters, though...I don't think that's posted anywhere, but I would think two hours would be the limit there, too, right?
So...Mercy... I was in the green zone and at 1 hour and 56 minutes I went out to move the car. I actually went to the store to pick up a few things the Crossing needed. When I came back, I decided to park in a metered space (still in the green zone, though - I hoped this was kosher). Fed the quarter into the meter and went back into the Crossing. 31 Minutes later**** I said, "I have to go feed the meter," and I looked out and there was the ticket lady going around the back of my car, getting my license plate number.
I walked out of the Crossing and said, "It expired, didn't it?" And waited for her to write my ticket. She smiled at me and said, "I haven't finished this yet. You can still put a coin in the meter." I said, "Really? Thank you so much," and fed another quarter into the meter. As she was walking away I said again, "Thank you. I really appreciate that." And she just said, "Have a nice day."
Mercy. Not getting what you deserve. I don't think about that often enough. It's one of those terms that we use in the church all the time - that maybe it's lost its meaning. And I know this was maybe a five dollar moment of mercy. But...well, that's her job. That's what she does. She didn't have to care that I was there "at the last possible second." But it was a little act of kindness - a little moment of mercy. And it really made a difference to me. It helped, you know?
And now - when the girls fight tonight or drive me nuts in some other way - will I show mercy? Will I extend what has been extended to me? Mercy matters. It should be at the heart of who I am, right? A friend of mine says that he sees that in me whenever he's with me...but I don't, I bet my family doesn't... Too often I feel like the unmerciful servant - and maybe I am...
And, really, I can do the BIG mercies... it's the little ones that kill me...
Anybody else? How are you at mercy? God pours out mercy all the time. Who has shown you mercy lately? How has it affected you?
*Not sure how accurate the website is for hours and whatnot - but, hey, it's a link :)
**How's THAT for a URL? Sheesh...
***Yeah, if you're from out of town, it's not really well explained anywhere - you're pretty much hosed...
****Okay, it might have been 32 minutes - but it wasn't 33, I know that for a fact, because I was keeping an eye on the clock...just, obviously, not carefully enough... well, you'll see...
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