I’d like to share with you a workshop I presented last month at Ministry Days, a conference in the Diocese of Sacramento. The focus is on God’s incomprehensible and infinite mercy. I present both a theology of mercy as well as some practical thoughts on how we can manage the fatigue and exhaustion that can come when performing mercy. You may view the video here:
You may also listen to the audio version here:
Click here to download the handout.
Thank you for sharing this Andy. I follow your work from here in East Africa. May God watch over you always. Peace.
Andy, I’ve been meaning to go back and watch this ever since you posted it a few weeks ago and am finally getting around to it!
There’s lots of great content in there but one of the things that stood out to me was a sort of redefining of what it means for God’s mercy to be incomprehensible. Incomprehensible, in the way you are presenting the idea, isn’t to say that it cannot be understood—but to say that I can be infinitely understood. It is really exciting and overwhelming to think about!
Similarly, I like to think about the mystery of God not meaning that God cannot be understood or known, but that he is mysterious because he can be infinitely known and understood. It never ends—and that is mysterious. Which makes sense right? Something that cannot be known, experienced, or felt AT ALL is not mysterious. The most mysterious things are those things that are experienced in part—but not completely.
Our interaction with the incomprehensible mercy of God is like our interaction with the sands that line the coasts of the earth’s continents. You can pick up this sand in handfuls, bucketfuls even, and you can feel it and experience it—but you can never grasp it all.