Mercy not Justice

Mercy vs. justice. Sadly, I admit most of the time I want mercy for myself and my failures while at the same time seeing the mistakes of others with an eye for only justice.

I've been thinking about that a lot over the last two days as I've been praying for mercy. A couple of weeks ago I found out we had out-of-town company arriving the day of the packing party so I decided we needed to replace the mattress in our spare bedroom.

Always looking for the best deal I bought one online through sears.com where I found a deal that offered $150 in Shop Your Way points with a $300 purchase. I chose the mattress and added a few items to make sure my purchase came to $300.  I was to receive the points in 10 installments of $15 each week, and I planned to use those points to purchase the ball pit balls pictured here. We used them in our 2-4 year old Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes at our packing party and even used some as extra fillers for older children when those checking the boxes at the end of the line found empty corners. 

I received my first $15 installment two weeks ago and then...nothing. I did some checking online and found I had only been awarded an offer of $15 for making a $100 purchase instead of the $150 for a $300 purchase.  Confused, I scrutinized the order and saw that when I made the final purchase I used $4 in existing points I had and that took my total just below $300 before tax was added. I decided to call Shop Your Way anyway and see what they said.

And I prayed. I told God I deserved justice. I'd made a mistake. But I asked Him if maybe I could have mercy.

Between yesterday and today I talked with seven different customer service representatives at both Sears and Shop Your Way. The convoluted conversations and run-around I had are too long to detail here, but I see now how God was using all those delays to get me to just the right person.

Today I talked with someone who finally took responsibility to look at my order (while I waited on hold) and then declared, "Yes, I see the problem. You used your points and that made your total fall below the $300." Yes, I did that. Justice meant I wasn't entitled to that $150 in points. That's what I deserved.

BUT then he said, "But don't worry. I will give you the points. I will add them to your account now." MERCY!  I deserved justice but I was blessed with mercy and $135 in points to spend.

I called my sidekick Pam and we strategized the best way to use this mountain of mercy.  I placed the order and now have 1200 ball pit balls coming our way for future shoebox packing. 

I'm so incredibly happy with this paltry little piece of mercy, and that makes me think of the incomprehensible mercy Jesus won for me with His death on the cross and the mountains of mercy poured out on me day after day by God's loving hand. 

Couldn't I give JUST a tiny bit more of that mercy to others as I go through my day?