In high school we played the game "Mercy". The object of this game was to interlock the fingers with your opponent and then try to bend his fingers backwards until he cried, "Mercy!" The first to cry for mercy was the loser.

We can be glad that God's mercy doesn't work like this. He doesn't force us to cry for mercy, but offers it freely. Often we forget this and wait until we are desperate for mercy to ask. Let us not wait until we are desperate again, ask for mercy--God gives it freely.

Since He gives it freely to us, let us also give mercy freely to our neighbor. Shall we stop looking for everyone to do everything we want to do every day, but let us give them the benefit of the doubt whether they deserve it or not. Then we can say we are more like Jesus than we were yesterday.