Rabbit Trails

   One thing that I love about the Internet is the ability to take off on a number of different rabbit trails, and then try to reconcile them together with what brought up the search in the first place.

   Take for example this morning's ramblings:

   My Psalm reading for this day was from Psalm 37:

"3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart."

   Then I began to think about the word "mercy" and wondering about the difference between mercy and tolerance. When I asked Google to search this question, I was led to a blog by a Catholic priest, where he had written these words.

   "It struck me that mercy is so much bigger than mere tolerance. We may be tolerant of others, but what real good is that? It is really little more than an absence of bigotry and malice. Indeed, it is little more than indifference. “Can’t we all just get along?”

   I am sure that all of the above and the reason that I had somehow read mercy into that Psalm stemmed from my blog post of yesterday and the conversations that had precipitated it. So I went back into the See the Other Side website and reread the blog post by the mother and her gay son. In fact I read it a couple of times, trying to sort my feelings out on her story. That story is here:

http://seetheotherside.us/2013/10/just-because-he-breathes/

   As I think on this story, I try to reconcile my thoughts from a Biblical perspective. There are a lot of sins enumerated in the Bible, many of which belong to me. Just because homosexuality is not one of mine does not make it worse than any of the others.

   So why is this deviation from God's laws so offensive. Is it the constant publicity from both the religious and the secular? Is it the "in the face" attitudes on both sides of the issue? Is it the "we need to be tolerant" of all others, regardless, thing?

   Just as I realize my sins and throw myself on the mercy of God, and repent, the way is open to fellowship with Him. I need mercy and not just tolerance.

   The son in the story seemed to be working his way back from his disillusionment, of God and people, and I cannot know his whole story. Mother and son were both recipients of the mercy of God as they walked through what that all meant.

   And God is still working in me and my attitudes. Just pondering all the facets of this causes me to think and reflect.

   Now, what does God want me to do?