Oh, Mercy Mercy Me....

Such were the Lyics from Marvin Gaye's song "Mercy Mercy Me...!" And that brother can sing a song, can't he?

Mercy has been the theme of the year I think. In the book "Peacegivers" it mentions how is it that most demand mercy for ourselves and demand justice for others. I believe it talks of Jonah and the city of Ninevah. Go read the story its only 4 short chapters: 3 pages.
Summary:
Jonah is sent to call Nineveh to repentance—He flees on a ship, is cast into the sea, and is swallowed by a great fish.
Jonah prays to the Lord, and the fish vomits him out on dry ground.
Jonah prophesies the downfall of Nineveh—The people repent and the city is saved.
Jonah is displeased with the Lord for his mercy upon the people—The Lord rebukes him.

Jonah didn't like Ninevites, that's why he fleed. They were his enemys and the Lord was sending him behind enemy lines so to speak to save them.
As we think of our enemies it wouldn't be easy for us to approach them and try to make nicey nice with them. I would have a hard time, that's ALOT to ask. How many of us could do it?

Upon being swallowed by the whale of course he realized the error of his ways and ask the Lord for Mercy, which the Lord gave. The Lord told him if he went into Nineveh, preached the word and they did not convert he would destroyed. Nineveh. He went forth unto Nineveh, did his missionary work. I guess he didn't plan on them converting because he sat and waited on a hill for them to be destroyed. And was angry with the Lord for not destroying them even though they converted. He felt conversion or not their corruption trumped their conversion and the Lord should not have mercy on them. I believe the book of Jonah ends with the question:
" ...And should not I spare Nineveh...?"

I guess in my mind i hear the Lord saying... "Hold Up, Jonah...... you cried mercy unto me... and I spared you. Nineveh cried mercy unto me... but I shouldn't spare them...? Wassup with that?"

I'm taken back to the times where I cry mercy to Heavenly Father and then deny it to those who seek it from me. We want so much for justice to be served with we are offended, but we want mercy applied when we offend. Should not the Lord Spare Nineveh? How often we forget in our lives that we are Jonah as well as Nineveh?

Can I give forgiveness and mercy without receiving it? And do I have a right to expect it, if I have not given it? How can we give, that which we don't have?

Since the Lord sees fit to spare us, should we not see fit to spare one another?

I have been fortunate this year to receive more than my share of mercy and forgiveness. I have also created more than my share of situations where I've need to please mercy and forgiveness.

I am grateful for being shown such love in times of my wretchedness and I'm happy to extend the same.
In LDS terms I guess you can say: Because I have been forgiven much I too must give.
In ghetto trems: what goes around comes around
In traditional terms: Due unto others

As Portia says in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice:

"The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
… it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, …
But mercy is above the sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself.
(Act 4, sc. 1, lines 184–95.)"