Tuesday, March 30, 2010

LESSON LEARNED 3: THE CALL TO BE MERCIFUL (PART 1)

Previous lesson learned

Two days before my accident, I just started my personal study/devotion on 1 Samuel.  Little did I know how much this book would strengthen and teach me to be MERCIFUL in the accident situation.  If you have read my blog entry before, being merciful is a characteristic that does not come out naturally for me.  It's one of my weaknesses.

In 1 Samuel 24:6-7, it is written, "[David] said to his men, 'The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD's anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD.'  With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul.  And Saul left the cave and went his way."  During my study, I learned how much King Saul hated David.  But the Spirit of the Lord had left King Saul and filled David.  As a result, King Saul's effort to chase and kill David was not successful.  

One day, David and his men were hiding in a cave when King Saul came to the cave to rest.  David's men told David that it's a good opportunity to kill King Saul who didn't know that David's in the cave as well.  What did David do instead?  David silently cut King Saul's fabric but spared his life.  When King Saul exited the cave, David showed the piece of fabric he cut from King Saul and declared how close he was to King Saul but decided to spare his life.  King Saul was embarrassed of the goodness David paid back for the bad things King Saul did to him.  To me, David was a person of mercy.


So how do being merciful, the accident, and 1 Samuel relate to each other?


When the car hit me and I finally landed on the street with eyes looking at the driver, a thought came to my mind, "Did you even see me?"  [Say it with an angry voice if you would]  But something's holding my tongue.  The thought never came out of my mouth.  That's when I realized the Holy Spirit was working in me.  It's bad enough to think about it.  But the Holy Spirit prevented me from being a more stumbling block to those who would hear it - especially the driver.


Seconds after that, the thought disappeared from my mind.  The Yanny before the accident would definitely yelled out that phrase and continued to give the angry look until I felt the other party's feeling guilty.  Yep, that was my strength - a merciless woman!  But the Yanny at the accident was well protected by the Holy Spirit.  Even though I was in pain, I was enabled to look at the lady driver without anger or irritation as she's explaining, "I just didn't see her on my right.  I was looking left for the incoming traffic."  I was able to slowly calm down; and her statement didn't bother me.  Man, I don't think myself would be able to do that.  That's the work of the Holy Spirit, Friends.  It's that powerful.

My trip on Mercy St. has been quite bumpy.  This is not the only time my mercy has been tested from the day I prayed to God to teach me this characteristic.  That's a dangerous prayer indeed!  As I write this blog entry, I have experienced many more.  And not all of them received my merciful act.  I still relapsed to how I used to be.  Wow, this is going to be a long journey.  That's why I put "(Part 1)" on my title.  Not sure when (Part 2) will come out.  Not sure how many parts will it come in.  So stick around for more updates on "Mercy St. Under Construction."


To close this blog entry, I want to share with you some pictures of Mercy - my bike.  Some damages don't really show well on camera; so I selected some that do.  And oh, on a side note, I have a tendency to name our vehicles based on the story each one of them shared with me and Marcel.  Marcel's first car was named Happy because he took us on many happy rides before we were in a long distance relationship.  My first car (got it when we started the long distance) was named Skippy because it was green and looked like the Skippy peanut butter jar I liked to snack on in Arizona.  And our shared car right now is Geeky because Marcel got it before he started his first job as an official geek - a software engineer.  

So what story will Mercy tell?  My trip in the Mercy St.  This will be a reminder of how the Holy Spirit won me at the time of accident.

The most expensive damage (~ >60% of total) to replace though it looks small.


Scratched pedal.  Praise the Lord the spring's OK.

One of the major damages that are easily visible on camera.

May this be a blessing! 

Next lesson learned

No comments: