Category Archives: Compassion

Old Testament Mercy. 2 Chronicles 33:12-13.

When I was a little boy, a girl down the street told me that God the Father was mean and angry, and that only Jesus the Son was merciful.[1] Have you heard this idea? It goes hand-in-hand with the oft-repeated trope that the Old Testament tells the story of a God of vengeance, and theContinue reading “Old Testament Mercy. 2 Chronicles 33:12-13.”

Men Prefer Justice, But God Prefers Mercy Because He is God and Not a Man. Hosea 11:9.

Pictured: “The Death of Socrates,” by Jacques-Louis David, 1787. Socrates was convicted of “corrupting the youth of Athens” because he asked hard questions about the Greek gods they all served. In the painting, Socrates, who is still teaching, bravely faces his sentence of death by hemlock tea, while his admirers and students look on inContinue reading “Men Prefer Justice, But God Prefers Mercy Because He is God and Not a Man. Hosea 11:9.”

DEFINITELY A LAW AND ORDER GUY. 1 Samuel 21:6.

Pictured: Actors portray Jesus healing a blind man on the Sabbath. In law school one of my colleagues asked me whether I was going to be a prosecutor. “Because I figure, you’re definitely a law and order guy.” I had never been called that before. As a hyperactive child, I spent most of my timeContinue reading “DEFINITELY A LAW AND ORDER GUY. 1 Samuel 21:6.”

Jonah Was Mad!

God said go to Ninevah. Jonah ran. Three horrible days in the belly of a whale. Jonah begs God to rescue him. God does and Jonah preaches doom to Nineveh. But they repented in dust and ashes, fasting and making their animals fast. And God relented and forgave. “And Jonah was greatly displeased and becameContinue reading “Jonah Was Mad!”

Foreigners.

In the 1980s, Sharpstown High School welcomed a sudden influx of refugees fleeing the Communist government of Vietnam.  The students showed up knowing no English and carrying a pass that entitled them to free lunches.  Every day three of the loudest non-English speaking Vietnamese girls would cut the line in the lunch room to grabContinue reading “Foreigners.”