M is for Mercy

Mercy: noun \ˈmər-sē\ Compassion or for­bear­ance shown espe­cially to an offender or to one sub­ject to one’s power; also: lenient or com­pas­sionate treatment

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, Cowardice asks the ques­tion: is it safe? Expediency asks the ques­tion: is it politic? Vanity asks the ques­tion: is it pop­ular? But con­science asks the ques­tion: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a posi­tion that is nei­ther safe, nor politic, nor pop­ular– but one must take it simply because it is right.

Whether or not to be mer­ciful to someone is a tricky deci­sion. Many will see weak­ness if com­pas­sion is unnec­es­sarily extended. Granted, extending mercy to someone can be risky, causing that person to think they can always get away with doing wrongful things. But what kind of world would this be if no one ever extended mercy and com­pas­sion to others?

Sometimes it’s just not polit­i­cally cor­rect to show mercy towards another person or group of people. We run the risk of being labeled and pos­sibly pub­licly ridiculed. And then we’re not on the A-list for future status considerations.

Sometimes it’s not pop­ular to extend mercy. Most of the time, our cul­ture demands revenge. After all, it’s so much more fun to plot revenge against someone who has crossed us than show com­pas­sion and try and under­stand the rea­sons for the actions.

And, let’s admit it. We all want others to be mer­ciful and com­pas­sionate to us, despite what we’ve said and done. After all, we’re only human; we didn’t really mean it.  But ask us to be mer­ciful? Well…all of a sudden it’s very con­di­tional, isn’t it?

I think Honest Abe is spot-on with his quote. The true mea­sure of someone’s char­acter lies in how they respond to others when they have the upper hand. Giving someone power over another is the fastest way to show whether they truly know the dif­fer­ence between kind­ness and mean­ness; benev­o­lence and intol­er­ance;  mercy and uncompassion.

Because, as they say, Karma is a bitch. What goes around tends to even­tu­ally come around.

Blessed are the mer­ciful; for they shall receive mercy.
~Jesus; Matthew 5:7

Linking up with ABC Wednesday Round 10