Mercy is what separates the legalist from the people-lover. Not just mercy given, but mercy received.

In Les Misérables, it was mercy that transformed Jean Valjean from a jaded prisoner into a sacrificial caretaker. And later it was Valjean’s mercy that drove Javert, a literal legalist, to take his own life rather than humble himself to receive that which he didn’t deserve.

“Mercy occurs,” Fil Anderson says on the Renovaré Podcast this week, ​“when the person from whom I have a right to expect nothing gives me everything.” 

Fil compared mercy to a womb. It’s a costly place to create for others, and a safe place to inhabit ourselves, if we are humble enough to ask for and dwell in it.

As a One on the enneagram — the reformer — I struggle with receiving God’s mercy and thus with genuinely loving others. My level of compassion directly correlates to how much I allow Jesus to embrace my broken self.

The one who’s forgiven little, loves little (see Luke 7). And the one who has received much mercy has much mercy to give.