Today's Devotional

February 21,  2006

 

Subject:  The Truth/Mercy Mixture

Proverbs 16:6 - "By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil."

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Absolutely Horrible!!!  That is one of the most often-quoted lines of American Idol's Simon Cowell.  He has made it fun to demean and humiliate the performances of aspiring singers and entertainers and truthfully, I most often agree with his assessment of the individual's performance.  However, even though I agree, and many would, there is something missing when Simon Cowell gives out his unblemished truth; and that is mercy.

Listening to a message on mercy yesterday, I heard a pastor talking about how people with the gift of mercy don't want to hurt anyone's feelings so they do everything they can not to make others feel bad.  That's definitely not Simon's problem, but as I read a review on a Christian website concerning American Idol, they talked about how necessary it is to continue to be honest and truthful when assessing others and they gave Simon positive marks for that.  Of course they went on to say that his methods are bad.

Today we need to get the mercy/truth mixture right.  Perhaps the answer to the question, "Does this dress make me look fat?" might not be, "No you're fat all by yourself."  With mercy the answer might be "I think that after a couple of months of a health and fitness, we can make the dress look more stunning on you."  Try truth "and" mercy.  The difference is love.

Carlen