Love Mercy

Monday Devotion

“Love mercy.”

Micah 6:8

A couple asked to speak to me after a “Sacred Marriage” seminar.  The husband had done some truly heinous things, and their marriage seemed on the verge of breaking up.  The wife rightfully desired to call him to account.   We talked for over an hour, and both of them left in tears—good tears that were bringing healing and restoration.

I gave the sermon at their church the next morning, and the husband sheepishly approached me after the services, “I bet I’m the worst man you’ve ever preached to,” he said.

“You’ve certainly done some awful things,” I admitted, “and you and your wife invited me into some of your worst moments—but I know that’s not the whole story.  If someone created a video of my worst moments, and that’s all you were to see about me, you’d be tempted to kick me out of this church before you’d shake my hand.”

Because we married a sinner, we’re going to see some ugly, ugly things.  That’s why our attitude toward another’s sin will determine, in large part, the degree of intimacy we can achieve in marriage.  A Pharisee might impress a mate, but he’ll never get truly close to her because judgment repels intimacy as surely as heat melts ice.