The reciprocal power of grace

There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.

James 2:13

There was a time in my life when I had an opportunity to bring judgement, or show compassion.

I was working with someone who had a reputation of taking advantage of the company and also not pulling their weight at work. We'll name them Percy. The job required us to be trustworthy and do our job with minimal supervision. Percy wasn't just letting me do the lion's share of the labor, they wouldn't even show up to work some days and still get paid! I did my best through those years to have patience and try to talk about the problem with Percy privately. He was going through some tough life situations that were dragging him down into despair it seemed. Nothing ever came from my efforts though. Eventually, I had a heated argument with Percy and we had a big blow out at work. After this event, I felt I had to let my superior know the situation just in case things got out of hand. My boss basically asked me, "What should I do Ryan? I can fire them if you think it's for the best." I replied, "No, we can work things out. He's just going through a rough patch and I'm confident we can get things better."

So that was the decision that was made that day. Sometime later I left to another job within the company. Percy had changed his ways and was given an unusual chance to financially thrive, and thrive he did! Sometime after this, I had an opportunity to make a huge leap in salary. That same boss who asked me if they should fire Percy fought for me within the company to have a similar unusual position as Percy, since if Percy could do it, so could I.

I was promoted not only on my own merit, but also due to Percy going before me and paving the way.

I believe it when the Bible says, "For promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he puts down one, and sets up another." Psalm 75:6-7. If we choose to have compassion for people when we judge them, when our time of judgement comes, grace will be shown to us. Cheers friends.

#Grace #Forgiveness #Jesus #Spirituality #Bible #Psalms #Compassion #Judgement