Spending some time with God this morning, dealing with my own stuff (we all have stuff, don’t we?), I came across these words recorded by one of his ancient prophets, Micah:

“You do not stay angry forever,
But delight to show mercy.”

Those words brought great comfort to me, who give God plenty of reason to be angry—and, therefore, plenty of opportunity for God to show me mercy.

And then I thought of our world, and particularly our nation, and how seldom—and how poorly—we think of mercy. We lean more toward the word justice, I think, whether calling for it, crying out for it, or lamenting its absence around us. Justice and mercy seem to be at odds with each other … but are they really?

The word “delight” jumped out at me. Not a word I use much, or feel much, in my own life, and certainly not in the context of mercy. Sometimes, I think, if we’re honest ourselves—if I’m honest with myself—we almost hate to see mercy granted … at least for someone else.

And then we come face to face with God, who, according to Micah, “delights to show mercy.” Let that sink in: God DELIGHTS to show mercy! He enjoys it, loves it, gets a kick out of it, is thrilled by it.

Mercy isn’t the opposite of justice, it’s the antidote for injustice.

I’m going to try today to delight right along with God in the mercy he shows me. Maybe you could, too.

And then, if you want (as I do) for our nation and our world to be a better place, then let’s see if we can work on delighting in mercy not just for ourselves but for others, too.