Part 7 -Mercy
..... THE MOTIVATION TO IDENTIFY WITH
AND COMFORT THOSE IN DISTRESS - to show sympathy with, to have pity on, to show
mercy.
In many respects this gift is the
absolute opposite of Prophecy. And
yet on the face of it there are one or two similarities. Both have the capacity to look inside other people; but where
a Prophet sees a person's character and motives, a Mercy person will see and
feel the joy or pain that is in them.
Where a Prophet has to rebuke and correct, a Mercy person weeps inside
for the trouble, the pain, the burdens, the problems that lie behind a sin or a
failure. Where a Prophet is
concerned with the challenge of the Good News and expects a positive response,
an obvious commitment, the Mercy person is concerned to express the overwhelming
love of Christ and to share his healing.
To see an example of Mercy at work, read John 8 verses 3 to 11; the story
of Jesus dealing with the woman who has been caught in the act of adultery.
Now for the marks of Mercy
(remembering, as I warned before, that not all these characteristics will be
equally present in any one person). And
first comes this sensitivity, this ability to FEEL, the joy or pain or distress
in another person, or in a group, and particularly to be attracted by distress.
In a person with the gift of Mercy it will work like a D.F. Loop - the
wartime system of getting a bearing from a radio beacon.
From the middle of a crowd he will feel distress signals coming, and home
right in on the one person in that crowd who is in real trouble; and his
overwhelming desire will be to give help, to minister to that need.
And time and time again he DOES minister: his own heart, flooded with the
hurt that the other is feeling, becomes an open channel for Christ's love and
grace to flow through - and someone is healed.
A Mercy person can be aware of physical
distress as well as mental, but it is the latter that floods into his own being
and brings the strongest response. He
is particularly sensitive to hurts inflicted by what others say and do: the
thoughtless or callous word is apt to strike him at least as hard as the one at
whom it is aimed. And because of
that sensitivity he is very reluctant to say or do anything himself that could
hurt, even when it is for someone's good. So there will be times when he ought to be firm but is
very reluctant about it; others will simply think he is being soft.
For these reasons Mercy people and Prophets don't mix; the Mercy people
are apt to be slaughtered deep inside out of sympathy with those to whom a
Prophet ministers. And in their turn, Prophets especially are liable to
think a Mercy person is soft-pedalling the challenges of God.
Mercy recognises and responds to
sincerity in others; conversely if someone is being insincere or insensitive he
tends to switch off. He
enjoys fellowship with, and feels at one with, those who have the same gifts and
sensitivity as himself.
Of course a Mercy person gets
misunderstood: his avoidance of hard-line attitudes and black-and-white
judgments looks like weakness and shilly-shallying. Indeed this is a grave danger for him: he will find it very
difficult ever to be firm with others, and may kid himself he can always avoid
it. He can't!
This thing called sensitivity - this
awareness that somehow picks up other people's internal agonies and floods his
heart with them - may look as if he is just being emotional.
But although he feels what others are feeling (and feeling might be
called emotion) yet the feeling is in his heart and not his mind.
In his mind his intelligence is in control, laying the pain and turmoil
before Christ and opening the way for Christ's healing to pour back into the
hurt person. This sensitivity
is also a danger both to him and to the person to whom he ministers. It
dissolves barriers and brings the two people into very close communion - a
sharing of thoughts and feelings. If
minister and ministered to are of opposite sexes there can be trouble, however
innocent the intention. Indeed
it would take two strong wills and clear minds - and/or the very firm hand of
God on both - to avoid problems. So
it is wiser wherever possible to minister man-to-man and woman-to-woman - which
demands the presence of Mercy persons of both sexes in any Christian body.
And if we don't have them we'd better start praying for them!
That having been said there are two
other points to bear in mind. First,
with all the present propaganda for and emphasis on homosexual relations,
nowadays ministry man-to-man or woman-to-woman may itself have a potential for
making as much trouble as cross-sexual ministry (though this is not to approve
or condone the principle of homosexual relationships).
And second, although in ministry we should try to follow the safest
pattern there are times and circumstances when we have to accept whatever risks
there are and go ahead and minister.
And in these cases we must simply make sure we are acting in obedience to
our Lord, trust that he himself has allowed the situation and ask him to keep us
all safe in it.
A third point on sensitivity: a Mercy
person's reaction to hurtful words or actions directed at someone else may look
like siding with the hurt person against the other. But the thing is that on
such an occasion BOTH feel equally hurt, and of the two the Mercy person is the
more likely to speak up and say so!
Last among possible misunderstandings,
the Mercy person's ability to detect insincere motives - plus the 'switching
off' that tends to follow will lead some to think he is hard to get close to or
has favourites. You know the
sort of thing: "He's all over so-and-so, but if I try and get near him he
just freezes up!"
In a sentence, the God-given gift of
Mercy means laughing with those who are joyful and weeping with those who weep;
and bringing back both tears and laughter to lay them at Christ's feet, carrying
back in exchange his grace and his love.
What must he NOT do?
First and foremost as always, he must not be proud of his abilities.
They are not his own doing but are given to him by God. He must not
resent the presence or activity of others who have not his gifts: they have
their own gifts and their own place in God's work. And although he will be
suspected of allowing emotion to rule in him, he must not allow it to actually
happen......