I've already Facebooked this but several days ago we returned Charlie, the dog we were fostering, to the Delaware Valley Golden Retriever Rescue.
Charlie'd had a troubled past and, as it turned out, serious temperament issues.
He became profoundly bonded to Evie but increasingly distrustful and hostile and aggressive toward me, and eventually attacked me, without injuring me, twice.
It was a sad moment for us to decide to return him.
But, during and since, I've been reflecting on choosing to show mercy.
Mercy is a choice.
Charlie, from the moment we met him, clearly was not the dream pet. As I've mentioned, he had been severely abused before ending up in his first shelter.
It was always clear that it would be a long and difficult journey if we were going to succeed in making him a part of our family.
I was willing to do that because I am convinced that a life of mercy requires continuing effort.
Back in the days when Faith was a traditional, old-fashioned Seeker Sensitive church, and we were attempting to transition into a missional type of ministry, when we did our frequent community service projects, I tried, always, to impress on our people that what we did as a group only served as an example of the way each of us should be living as individuals all the time as ambassadors of the Kingdom.
The Charlie thing worked in the same way for me, at least, in reminding me that it is the choices we make in responding to the "least of these" of any species that identifies us as followers of Jesus.
As I said, reaching out to the least of these often results in the failure to make a permanent impact on the one to whom we show mercy...
...but the act of showing mercy itself is its own achievement.
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