“There is probably no prayer in the history of Christianity that has been prayed so frequently and intimately as the prayer ‘Lord, have mercy.’… This cry for mercy is possible only when we are willing to confess that somehow, somewhere, we ourselves have something to do with our losses. Crying for mercy is a recognition that blaming God, the world, or others for our losses does not do full justice to the truth of who we are. At the moment we are willing to take responsibility, even for the pain we didn’t cause directly, blaming is converted into an acknowledgment of our own role in human brokenness.

The prayer for God’s mercy comes from a heart that knows that this human brokenness is not a fatal condition of which we have become the sad victims, but the bitter fruit of the human choice to say no to love” (Henri Nouwen).

This brings to mind the parable in Luke 18 of the Pharisee and the tax collector. One basically used prayer to brag about his credentials and how he wasn’t as sinful as those around him. Basically, he believed that they were what was wrong with the world, not him.

But then there’s the tax collector praying, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

He had gut-level honesty about who he was before a holy God. He knew he couldn’t blame anyone else but only beg God for pardon and forgiveness. God heard his prayer and not the one from the Pharisee.

I also remember that back in the day, a London newspaper sent inquiries to all the leading men of the day to write in about what was wrong with the world. One of those, G. K. Chesterton, wrote back with the shortest reply. He said. “I am. Yours truly, G. K. Chesterton.”

That’s not me telling you to beat yourself up about how horrible and nasty you are. It’s being honest about who you are and who God is. It’s taking that pointed finger away from everyone else and pointing it in the mirror instead. It’s admitting your complete dependence on God and finding out that He is close to the contrite and broken-hearted.

I could go on and on about how all these other people on social media need to read this, but I think in keeping with the spirit of this post, I should be the first one.

Lord, have mercy on me.