When I was young, I often played the game Mercy. It’s a simple game, really. You and your opponent take both of your hands and intertwine them with each other’s. You then proceed to bend them back trying to “win the game.” When it starts to hurt beyond what you can handle, you merely yell, “Mercy!” and your opponent stops. Whoever yells “Mercy!” is the loser.

Webster defines mercy as this: Compassion shown to an offender; imprisonment rather than death imposed as penalty for first-degree murder. In the Christian life, we are far from losers when... (Continued)