This particular part of Matthew has always kind of stuck out to me, but I never really took this much time to contemplate them and pray about them and figure out how they fit into, or how they don’t fit into my life. It was really great to come to a deeper understanding this week.

5:7 really caught my attention as I was reflecting. Mercy is such a hard concept for people to grasp, myself included. The idea that someone who may have done wrong and may deserve to be in the terrible place they may be can be forgiven and can receive generosity and mercy from others is hard to grasp for me. I have always been of the opinion that if you mess up, you have to live with the consequences in full. But reflecting on this passage has brought me to some new conclusions.

Take a homeless man for example. Homeless due to a drug habit. Something happened in his life, some influence was bad enough or some conditions were rough enough for him to turn to drugs, and now he sits on the streets miserable. Who deserves that? We are all humans, all children of God. Shouldn’t we look out for each other? Shouldn’t we love one another? Isn’t love the focus of so many verses and chapters and books of the Bible?

So, I have learned to have much more mercy for people. This verse stuck out to me, and it is for that very reason. It is hard, especially being in Portland, where for safety’s sake, you have to completely ignore begging homeless people every single day (because you never know what kind of mental state they are in).

But instead of giving them money, I say a little prayer for them. I pray that God will watch out for them and that they will find happiness someday. I don’t know if that’s considered mercy. . . but it’s something I’ve started doing recently in an attempt to have more mercy for people. When I pray, I think harder about the situation at hand from a more God-focused perspective. I remember this verse, and that these people deserve respect and mercy.

as i was reading and reflecting on the beautitudes, i have been struck by how easy it is to think i am looking at the world correctly but be completely wrong. i look at things through my eyes so much more than i want to. what i want, are God’s eyes. to do that, i need to make sure that i am allowing him to be sovereign in my life. i need to let him be more in charge of my life than i am presently allowing him to be.

The Message, after describing that you are blessed when blessed when people persecute you and revile you for your faith in verses 11 and 12, ends with the following sentence:
“My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”

I can just see God saying something like that with a wry little smile on his face. The statement reminded me of a speech I heard from Congressman John Lewis a year and a half ago.

I don’t do it justice by boiling down a 45 minute speech into a couple sentences, but in this speech (given at the College Conference at Montreat in Montreat, NC) John Lewis, a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, explained that there was a time when he and the other members of the movement had finally decided that it was time to get in the way – that it was time to get into trouble. With this mindset, the sit-ins began. In his words, “they were standing up, by sitting down.”

It made me wonder about how I could “get into trouble” for God today. I also asked the question, what do I do once I’m in trouble? How do I handle the people who revile and persecute me?

Thankfully, John Lewis gave me a relatively simple answer for the latter question –
“Love the hell out of them. Literally love the hell out of them. Love them until all of the hell leaves their bodies.”

Now, how do I answer the first?

I have not done most of what Jim asked, but I did read the verses.

The last few months have been hard and it is cool that through this weekend, and I can see it in these verses too, God has reminded me that he does see and care about the circumstances in life.

And he has a plan beyond me and beyond the current situations that he is working to fruition.

That there is more to God’s plan than the current issues I find myself in and that at the same time he does not ignore the now, he is with us in every season is comforting.

Grace and Peace,

Allen

What stood out to me most was 5:5,8,10. I feel those three, humble, pure heart and persecuted for doing right, are aspects not in my life currently. I am not sure if persecuted for doing right has ever been, kind of sounds like a tough one to me, however having a pure heart was always atop my “good-list” if you will. Ha.

If you start to hardened your heart towards some things-it makes it easier to lose that pure heart. And after awhile it’s gone. And without a pure heart it’s hard to see God. And that my friends, is trouble.

Journey well.