The Meanings of Mercy
The Meanings of Mercy is a scripture discussion concerning identity and and three ideas often translated as “mercy” in English. This is a resource for the “Mercy” or “Mercy Space” step of The Journey Map framework.
The first step in helping people on their spiritual journey — whether your young-adult peers on the team of the child campers in the cabins — is to practice mercy. There are three different ideas of “mercy” in the Bible and we’re going to use the story of God appearing as himself before Moses to explore these.
When Moses asked God to show him his glory, God said this in reponse:
“I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim Yahweh’s name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
Exodus 33:19 WEB
POINT 1: Yahweh — God’s highest and most core name — means “I am that I am”.
- What’s the difference doing something out of identity verses obligation (you have to do it) or transaction (you’ll get something out of it)?
- What are the results if you do something repeatedly from obligation or transaction instead of identity?
POINT 2: Gracious Mercy (ḥānan חָנַן) means to show generosity in a way that gets down onto someone else’s level.
- Have you ever known someone was trying to be generous to you, but it just made you feel bad?
- What does generosity look like that really connects with a friend (peer), somebody in trouble (a person in homelessness), or somebody who has less capacity that you (a child)?
POINT 3: Space-making Mercy (rāḥam רָחַם) means to value and hold openness for people like a mother holds space in her body and her arms for a baby.
- Why do people need other people to make space for them in their lives?
- What are ways that we can do this for our peers and for the campers?
POINT 4: Loyal Mercy (ḥeseḏ חֶסֶד , see Ex 34:6). There’s one more kind of mercy God shows: loyalty that sticks with it and does the right thing regardless of the situation or the response.
- How could you see this type of mercy being important when dealing with campers and your team mates?
- Being truly loyal to someone means doing right by them. How is this sometimes different than doing what they want or doing what’s easy?
Application Questions
- How would you apply this to a lifestyle of discipleship — defined as helping people follow Jesus as you follow Jesus on your life journey?
- How would you apply this to the the relationship between counselors and campers?