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Quality of Mercy-LL&L Monthly Sept.05
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Benjamin Devey
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Sep 03, 2005 10:47 PDT
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Learning Love and Life
Monthly Relationships Newsletter
No. 140
September 3, 2005
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"The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
…Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy."
William Shakespeare
"The Merchant of Venice"
"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict
justice."
Abraham Lincoln
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More Tender Mercies
Copyright(c) 2005 by Benjamin Devey. All rights reserved.
Last time we talked about tender mercies. I hope you’ve been recognizing
those events of compassion in your life. I’ll share a few that happened
to me recently. Oddly, several of them involve cars and breakdowns.
On a Saturday I was about eight miles and turned to return home. The
clutch in the '83 Datsun Nissan mini-wagon pushed in loose and I felt
the pop of the cable breaking. I got out to push the car out of the
intersection, and before I got it to the curb there were four other men
helping to push. One of them asked if I needed a ride anywhere. A young
couple drove me home, and I had time to get the clutch cable at a part
store, tow the car back home and fix it before the end of the day.
A few weeks later, our other Nissan, an '87 Sentra, lost power twice in
that many days. Still trying to diagnose the problem, I noticed a leak
in the cooling system. I tried to jump the car to take it to the shop,
but the electrical system didn’t respond. Since the repair shop is
downhill from my house, I thought I might be able to kick start the car
and get it to the shop.
No such luck.
When the car wouldn’t kick start, I thought I'd coast as far as it would
go, which ended up to be about half the distance on a level road. Again,
I was pushing the car to the curb, when two people stopped to help. The
second man had a tow cable, and the third was a neighbor who offered to
give me a ride back from the shop.
The day of miracles has not ceased. Typically, God intervenes in ways
that look like coincidences. He places feelings like compassion, love,
and good will in our hearts, so that we’ll find ways to give aid and
comfort to others.
On the home front, compassion is a fundamental key to successful
relationships. We need to respond to our loved ones by sensing their
needs, uttered or unexpressed, and providing comfort, understanding, a
listening ear, and grace to the problems of life.
With the tragedy of hurricane Katrina this week, I hear a lot of people
asking "Why?" A more appropriate question might be, "Now, what can I do
to help?" We are a compassionate nation of people who understand the
need to help each other. With the losses of the victims of Katrina, see
how you can extend tender mercy to those in need.
Katrina Relief
Here’s a link to the American Red Cross, where you can send donations
for direct relief:
http://www.redcross.org/
Bless Those You Love,
Benjamin
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Copyright (c) 2005 by Benjamin Devey. All rights reserved. Permission is
granted for use on web sites, in news groups or mailing lists as long as
this file is left intact.
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