Playing Mercy

Rules

Two players face each other and grab their opponents hands (opponent #1's right hand to opponent #2's left hand, opponent #1's left hand to opponent #2's right hand, interlocking fingers or thumbs with fingers wrapped around an opponent's back part of the hand). On the word "go", each opponent attempts to bend the other's hands back and inflict pain by straining the ligaments and tendons in the wrist. When a player can no longer stand the pain, or reverse the situation by overpowering the other player and bending back their wrists, the player cries out "Mercy!" (or "Peanuts!", "Danny Stavros Buck", "Pinochle" or "Uncle" in some areas) and is then defeated. The players then disengage hands and match is completed.
In some areas, Mercy is usually one-handed, with both players using either their right or left hands. In this version, the use of the other hand at all is considered cheating. There is also often a focus on bending the opponent's arm as well as hand. Skilled Mercy players often use specific strategies to get their opponents into painful positions, such as twisting the arm around so that the elbow is pointed towards the neck, against the back, and then pushing up on the arm.

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Sometimes I feel like I'm playing mercy with God. This morning I felt that way. I was having my quiet time with the Lord; I read a chapter out of a book, I read from my Bible and I journaled. When I started praying for my family I just cried, "Mercy! God, we KNOW You're faithful. You don't have to keep proving it. Can we please just get jobs now?" I then asked the Lord to forgive me for the outburst, for the bad attitude and for that feeling in my heart. But I knew that He saw it and I might as well admit it.
The thing about playing mercy is that the opponent is bent on causing you pain until you cave.

That's not the God I serve. When I start feeling this way, it reveals a flaw within me. My mom has a way of making macaroni noodles and tuna seem like a feast. I don't know how she does it. We are so blessed. Sometimes we get depressed and stressed out because we sit at home all day when not out looking for jobs. We wonder how we'll squeeze by until the next week. But somehow God always provides. We just wish it wasn't so close all the time!

God doesn't play at mercy. It isn't a sick and twisted game. He extends it freely to all who need it. Anytime I feel like He is doing anything different, it reveals a nature of entitlement in me. I don't deserve anything. But through His grace and His mercy, I will always have what I need and in the words of the immortal Mary Poppins, "Enough is as good as a feast."