Tag: Luke 6:36

Restored and Kept Safe

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Restored and Kept Safe

I made a mistake with my heart medication not long ago. Wasn’t a small one either. Took a double dose without even realizing it, the kind of thing that happens when your hands move faster than your mind. Didn’t take long before I knew something was wrong. The body has a way of telling you the truth even when you don’t want to hear it. This was one that taking a double dose was very bad and dangerous.

I called poison control, and the woman on the line didn’t waste a second. Told me to get to the emergency room, and get there fast, the closest one. I was transported within a few minutes. They were waiting on me when I was brought through the doors. Most saw the first image when I arrived, but I saw image two, and before long I was in the ICU, wired up and watched over, spending the night in a hospital bed I never planned on being in.

Reflection

Mistakes don’t send you a letter first. They show up in a moment of tired hands or a distracted mind, an extra pill, a missed step, and suddenly you’re standing someplace you never meant to stand. I’ve thought about that night more than once since. How close the whole thing came to going a different way. How thin that line is between chaos and grace, and how a man can walk right up to the edge of it without ever seeing the drop.

There’s a kind of quiet that comes after you realize you’ve been spared. Not relief exactly, something older than that. A recognition that you are not out here carrying this life on your own strength. Something unseen was in that room. Something was already holding the line.

I don’t say that lightly. I’ve buried people I loved and I know mercy doesn’t always look the way we’d choose it to look. But that night, it looked like a doctor moving fast and a heart that kept beating and a morning that came anyway. Your story isn’t finished. Mine wasn’t either, not yet.

If you’ve had a night like that, a mistake that could have cost you everything and somehow didn’t, let your heart move today. Move from the shock of what almost happened to the plain, quiet warmth of what didn’t. You’re here. You’re breathing. Somebody was watching over you before you even knew you needed watching.

Scripture

“For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” Psalm 91:11 (see Psalm 91)

A Prayer of Thanks

Lord, thank You for watching over me when I was careless, when I was confused, when I didn’t even know enough to be afraid yet. Thank You for the mercy that caught me before the damage was done. Forgive me my haste, and teach me to move slower through this life You’ve given me. And more than anything, thank You for this day, and for the breath I didn’t earn but got anyway. Amen.

Disclaimer

I am not giving medical advice, but sharing my experience. If you have taken too many medication call your Poison Control Center. I called 800-222-1222.  Also seek medical advice and physician care on all medical issues.

Written by Jimmie Aaron Kepler, Ed.D. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. You are welcome to share or adapt it provided proper credit is given to the author.

The Grace She Didn’t Expect

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The Grace She Didn’t Expect

My friend Karen told me this one herself, and I have carried it with me ever since.

She walked into the performance review with a knot in her stomach. Her team had aimed for a five percent gain and landed at four and a half. They had gone after twelve new accounts and closed nine. In her industry, that kind of shortfall usually ended careers. She had watched it happen to colleagues. She had even inherited her own role that way, stepping into a seat left empty by someone who missed the mark before her. Her company’s leadership had harsh reputation.

Her manager had moved on to another company with a promotion to director of sales. A new manager, known in the industry for growing sales in low or poor performing companies, had replaced him. So she braced for the worst. What she got instead was a different kind of leadership altogether.

Her manager looked at her, plain and steady, and said, “You worked hard, you’ve built a strong team, and your team made real progress. You’re a valued asset to this company. Next year’s sales goals, well, we’ll set the goals together. I’ll really value your input.”

That was it. No lecture. No warning shot across the bow. Just mercy, handed over like it cost nothing, though we both know it never does.

Karen walked out of that room a different person than she walked in. Not because she had won anything, but because she had been forgiven for losing.

There is a lesson buried in that meeting room, quiet as a held breath. Sometimes the thing that saves a person is not correction. It is kindness, offered before it is earned, strong enough to put the courage back in somebody’s spine.

“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” Luke 6:36 KJV

Today’s Bible Thought

Grace is not something that happens to us. It is something we choose to hand to someone else. That verse is not a suggestion. It is a mirror. God has been merciful toward us every day we have drawn breath, and now He turns to us and says, go and do likewise. 

Mercy means laying down the right to get even. It means choosing patience over payback, understanding over judgment, even when judgment would feel a whole lot more satisfying in the moment.

Reflection

Think of one person, one situation, sitting in front of you today, where you have the chance to hand out grace instead of keeping score.

Prayer

Lord, thank You for the mercy You have shown me more times than I have ever deserved it. Help me see the people around me the way You see them. Give me the strength to be patient, to forgive without keeping a ledger, and to let Your love show up in the small, practical ways that matter most. Amen.

Written by Jimmie Aaron Kepler, Ed.D. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. You are welcome to share or adapt it provided proper credit is given to the author.

If you like my writing style and message, you can find my nonfiction books in print, ebook, and audio at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jimmie-Kepler/author/B00IBTG83K