Becoming Mercy People
Randall Caselman
4/29/98
Becoming Mercy People
It looked like any other race. The starter raised the gun;
on your mark, get set, go! The crowd was on their feet in anticipation. The runners were out of the starting blocks. Then even the casual observer could tell something was different. This was the Special Olympics. The contestants were developmentally and physically disabled. The runners moved down the track shoulder to shoulder. Suddenly one of them fell, sprawling headlong on the asphalt in pain and embarrassment.
What was different about this race was that the other contestants continued on for another few yards. Then all of a sudden without any communication among themselves, they
all stopped and jogged back to their fallen friend, picked him up, comforted him, then arm-in-arm they ran to the finish-line together. You see, these runners would rather finish the race together, than to win individually.
When I read this story, I thought of the church. Isn’t this really what the body of Christ, the family of God is about? Each of us have spiritual, emotional and relational disabilities. We may have looked as though we were fine as the starter raised the gun. But as the race is run all our warts, our short comings, our sins and disabilities begin to show. We are seen as we really are, sinners in need of help, help from God and help from one another.
Sometimes we fall. It is not
if we fall, it is
when we fall. All of us are going to make mistakes, stumble and fall. All of us will sin. We all need help. We all need to be picked up, understood, encouraged and assisted to the finish line.
You see, God in His wisdom, put the church together in such a way that we are all equipped to aid and assist one another. He has given each of us special gifts just for the purpose of helping one another. Paul says,
just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.
God has spread among us in the church some
Mercy People. Those who are willing to stop long enough to:
• Come along side us,
• Admonish us,
• Encourage us,
• Help us back on our feet,
• Put their arm around us and assist us to the finish line.
What we need is someone to love us enough to become our Mercy Person. Someone to come along side us, admonish us, warn us, rebuke us with love from the word.
James says,
if a brother wanders from truth, stumbles on the track, and one bring him back, he saves a sinner from death and covers a multitude of sins. Question! Has God providentially brought you to a situation where you could be a
Mercy Person?
This is what the Hebrews' writer had in mind when he wrote,
Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak, and the knees that are feeble, make straight the paths so that the limb that is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. What a beautiful picture of the church and the mission of
Mercy People within it.
Let us be like the good Samaritan, instead of closing our eyes, excusing ourselves, judging one another and passing by on the other side, let us:
• Bind up one another’s wounds,
• Lift up the fallen,
• Bear one another’s burdens,
• And if need be carry them and support them until they can help themselves.
We must stop trying to win this race individually. We must stop trying to compete with one another. We need to learn to pick one another up, help one another individually and corporately to the finish line. Let us become encouragers and supporters instead of critics and judges.
—Randall Caselman
