No Mercy

It was my junior year at Belmont. All of us baseball players just got out of practice and were coming out of the locker rooms when we decided to go into the basketball arena to watch the Atlantic Sun Women’s Volleyball Tournament. Belmont was hosting the tourney and we knew that our girls were playing.

We walked in and sat right on the floor. I noticed that Belmont was up and it was game point in the third game (best out of five) and Belmont had taken the first two games. This meant that the upcoming point was match point, and the opposing team was serving. And a time-out was called on the court.

I found a roster for both teams lying on the ground; I picked it up and began to look over the names for the opposing team. I found who I was looking for.

Somebody’s precious little daughter was serving. And she was a senior. I realized at that moment if this little sweetheart loses this point the match and her career are both over.

A hush fell over the crowd as the sweet little daughter toed the line. She breathed deeply and calmly and became poised to move the game to yet one more point.

Simultaneously I stood in my seat and belted, “Don’t choke; this will be the last serve you ever serve for your entire life!”

I’m now the anthropomorphic manifestation of evil for this girl!

She hits the ball into the net; Belmont wins the match.

Her career – over.

Her memories of college athletics – tainted as my face screaming in celebration at her misfortune sears into her brain.

For me . . . this girl was outside the realm of my mercy.

Why is it so ingrained in human nature to want to be unmerciful? Why is it so easy for us to draw lines in the sand, push people away, vote people in and out, choose who we will save and who we will damn?

We see this all the time. The Republicans have regained enough seats in the House . . . the Democrats are now damned. Muslims are moving from the East to West to live in our free country and we crucify them with our tongues as we pretend to think that racism is dead in the South. Need we even say the word “homosexuality” or phrase “gay marriage”? They haven’t been accepted in Baptist life yet.

We find things that are different, disturbing, or other and we vote it out, disenfranchise it, segregate with it, and damn it. And then we turn right around and justify to ourselves that we are godly, good-natured, and righteous by how we live. And I do it too.

Loving our neighbors is a big deal. I wonder why we don’t think about it more?

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