Mercy

While everyone is running to see the Avengers movie, I’m watching Cobra Kai on Youtube. For those of you that have not heard of the show, Cobra Kai is the story of Daniel Larusso and Johnny Lawrence (from the original Karate Kid movie) as adults. The story follows Johnny Lawrence, the antagonist in the original movie, who becomes the protagonist in the first season and into the second. He begins to learn that you need to give mercy in this world, even though his former sensei teaches that mercy is for the weak, and that you never show mercy to your enemy. That’s how so many people view mercy, even Christians. It’s for the weak and you don’t show mercy to your enemy. If they show mercy to someone, then they believe that the other person wins. Do they though? Even if they do win, is life about winning and losing or is there something more to all of this?

Giving mercy is not about the other person. It’s about you. It reveals your true character. I heard a speaker at the Los Angeles Book Fair say that mercy was easy so she received to give it. That’s interesting. If it’s so easy, then do it. Mercy is not easy; it’s difficult to do, but the rewards are tremendous. Mercy is not deserved nor earned. Mercy is not for the weak. It is for the strong. If you cannot show mercy to your enemy, you continue to dwell on the act that they committed and you never move forward. You are stuck.

Being stuck in life gets you nowhere. You think you have conquered the issues with the other person, but in reality, you cannot let go of the incident or of the person receiving any success in life. That other person or group of people has moved on with their lives. They may feel bad that you refuse to give them mercy, but they don’t dwell on it. Some may not even think about it or care because they don’t know they did anything wrong. You, on the other hand, dwell on it.

If you were in the same room with the person you refuse to give mercy to, what would you do? Would you wish you had the karate moves to practice on that person? Would you tell them how horrible they are? Would you leave? You don’t have to be friends with them. You don’t have to see them. You don’t even have to acknowledge them. In order for you to become stronger, you have to fight for you. You have to be the bigger person because it is the only way you heal and move forward. You heal because you are the one who has the power. You no longer allow the other person to have power over you.

If what they did has caused harm and warrants criminal charges, it does not mean that a consequence is not given. It does mean that you no longer allow that person to control your emotions or thoughts. Take the power. Give mercy.

No one deserves mercy, yet God had mercy on us and sacrificed his Son for us. Every one of us has sinned against God and has broken our promises to Him and broken His heart. We so graciously receive God’s mercy and even praise God for it in our prayers and songs. We must do more. We must show mercy to others.

So, to those characters on that fictional television show, Cobra Kai, giving mercy is for the strong. The strong have power over someone because they can stand up when the other person is lying on the floor trying to kill. It’s not who wins or loses. It’s who can stand and be the person who refuses to allow anyone to have power over them. It’s the one who can rise up over others and show mercy. I try to work every day to show mercy in a world that wants no mercy. If it were easy, everyone would do it, but the best things in life don’t come because they are easy. They come with work, strength, mercy, and love.

Power of Words

At a workshop with authors, one author claimed that she can go on Twitter and not like what you say, but you better not like what she says. Therein lies the problem. We all believe that someone must listen or read our words, but we do not have to listen or read the words of others. We have become arrogant with using our own words and the words of those with whom we agree and ignorant to the words of others to whom we disagree. The reason is that words are powerful.

I get it. We all get in the battle of words. The leaders of our country get in battles of words and the intent of their meaning every single day. I get in battle of words with students and vice versa. What we all have to learn is that words are powerful, and maybe, just maybe, a whole lot more of grace is needed with everyone. Maybe instead of arguing, we need to listen, ponder, and be very slow to respond.

In James, it talks about being quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to become angry. If we would be more intent on listening, then maybe we would not allow words to penetrate us so that we silence others from using their words. In America, we have freedom of speech. With freedom comes responsibility. Just because we have freedom to speak, doesn’t mean we are not accountable for what we say. How we respond to others will reveal how we listen and how we respect others, which reveals how much we respect ourselves.

If we can allow others to use their words to get their message heard, then others will listen to us. it’s called conversation. We need to have more conversations and less lectures. We are taught in as teachers that lectures are only useful when they go for about ten minutes. We have been taught that we need to find other strategies to use to teach our content. Students tune us out when we lecture. Adults tune out when people lecture, but in a conversation, people listen because they are waiting for their turn to talk.

So, for that author, she has the right to write whatever words she so desires. She can say what she desires. We have the right to read and listen or to not read or listen. We also have the right to refute her words with love and grace. It all comes to how we respond that reveals our love for God, others and ourselves, and that is what is most important. Love. May we all show more love today than we do anger and hate. It will make the world a much better place because love and grace are two of the most powerful words that we have.

March Madnesss

Tenacity. Grit. Passion. Teamwork. Love for the game. Love for the team. Those words are heard from the commentators every year during the college basketball tournament. Even though neither one of my favorite teams are not in the Final Four, or in the final game tomorrow, I still enjoy watching the tournament. Young people show that they are passionate, have grit, and refuse to give up. It’s a metaphor for me of how I need to live life and how I can have hope in the future as there are young people who are already living out these qualities.  

Each team plays each game throughout the tournament as if it’s their last game to play. In our lives, very few people do life as if it is their last game to play. Imagine if you lived every day as if it was the most important day of your life. I know I live days differently. I know I choose whether or not I will engage completely into the day or waste time and only give it some of my best. The teams in the tournament who do the latter are the teams that go home early because they gave up and had unfulfilled potential.

Too many times in life we blame others for the bad events that occur. It’s like teams blaming the referees for one or two calls in the game. Once an event occurs that someone else causes, we have a choice to either press forward and go in a new direction and use different tactics, or we can sit, pout, and completely give up. Too many times we choose the latter. It’s time we choose the former.

It’s hard to get back up after someone else creates a diversion in our lives, but those most difficult moments in our lives create us to be who we are. When others try to break us, it is up to us how we respond. I want to be like those teams that come back from bad calls and huge deficits and win the whole game. Just like most people, this is one of my greatest struggles. It is work every day not to allow other people to determine my fate. Each day I have to determine if it is too difficult or will I learn from any event and pick myself up and move forward. People can push me down, but they cannot keep me down!

Maybe I’ll just have one shining moment that will make a difference for those around me. Whatever it is, I need to always live each day as if it is the only day I have and trust me, it’s difficult to do! I am going to choose to live life and see those one shining moments. Maybe only one team is left standing in the end, but it’s not about how I stand, but how I lift up others to stand with me. The team that stands in the end did it because of those that stand together. We are not alone. We cannot do life alone. We can stand and have our shining moments when we build our team around us to be able to stand with us. Whether we win or lose, when we stand together, we will have a shining moment. That one shining moment will create a shining moment for someone else. May we all have a life that presses forward no matter what and have our “One Shining Moment.”

No matter what happens in life, there are surprises. Let’s surprise people and stand in the end. When they ask us how did it all happen, we just simply state, because it’s called, “March Madness.”