Choosing to recognize the mercy of God

About 6 years ago I read a book entitled Living the Cross Centered Life, Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing by C.J. Mahaney. It changed the way I view the cross and Christ crucified. In the last six years the only time I have picked that book up again was today. Today I picked it up to review some of the important material that Mahaney reviews. I wanted to freshen up on the life changing principles he inserts into the reader's mind. Something that I highlighted 6 years ago was "The regular reminders of my past are precious to me. Why? Because, like Paul, I never want to forget the great mercy shown me."

I read this book after a time in my life where I was trying to heal from sour circumstances in my life. The February before I had been held up on my college campus right outside of my dorm with a gun to my neck. A couple of months later my grandfather had had heart surgery where they didn't think he was going to live. The aunt that I was closest to had died in her home exactly one year after I graduated high school. In June a guy that I graduated high school with (in a class of about 31) and the high school teacher that had a great influence on why I had decided to study English both died. Many other little things were happening. I was broken. I wanted to be healed.

It wasn't until I looked at my past as something that made me me that I started to be healed. I went to see The Vow this weekend. In it Channing Tatum's character talks about moments of impact and how they make a person who they are. These past experiences, these moments of impact are what drove me to the cross and the mercy of God. They drove me to healing. They drove me there because I realized that none of these compared to the hell I would experience being separated from God for eternity.

I know the things I experienced that summer and the things that I've experienced since then don't compare to what pain others have gone through. I know this, but I also know the reminders of our past are reminders of the mercy God has poured out on us. It could always be worse, and things always happen in seasons.