We Could Have Called the Cops
We just got hit.”
“What?! Are you serious?!”
“Yeah, in the bumper.”
“You've got to be kidding me.”
Brett pulls into the nearest parking lot. He opens his car door and gets out to meet the driver behind us. We are only an hour away from our vacation spot in Florida to visit my parents, my sister, and her family.
“What happened?” A twin shouts from the back.
"The guy behind us hit the van,” I reply. It was barely considered a hit. Not even the twins closest to the back recognized what had happened.
Brett comes back to sit in the driver’s seat. “He doesn’t have insurance. But his sister does, so he’s going to take me to her.”
We drive a few miles down the road and park in front of a house.
“Shouldn’t we call the police?” I am Googling what to do when you’ve been in an accident. I take a screenshot of a list of the necessary information and text it to Brett’s phone. He decides to follow protocol, gather all the info, take pictures, and then determine what to do.
I peek out of my window to watch Brett talking to the man and his sister. She searches through her car to find the insurance card. Brett takes pictures of both vehicles.
“How long is this going to take?” Another twin whines.
“I don’t know, bud. Please be patient.”
Brett eventually comes back and explains, “He doesn’t have a driver’s license. When I asked him, he went white as a ghost. In that second, I could foresee how this would play out if I call the cops. But I don’t think it’s worth it. This is a divine opportunity, because I heard the Spirit say, ‘This is not about your bumper.’ I’m going to pray over them both.”
He gets back out again. I continue to watch out of my window and exclaim, “Kids!! THIS is the gospel!!!! Right here! Dad is offering this man grace and mercy. He could get in really big trouble if we call the police, but Dad is going to tell him he’s not going to, and pray over him!!!”
I then pray out loud as I now see the woman crying, holding her hands up to her face. “Oh, Jesus! This is Your divine appointment. You allowed us to be hit because these people need to be prayed over. Jesus, please let them know that they are so so loved by You. And that You have died for them and want them a part of Your family. Spirit, speak through Dad right now. Let the darkness and evil flee so that they can hear Your truth.”
Several minutes later, Brett gets back in for the last time and relays his conversation: “I told them I wasn’t going to report the accident. The sister started sobbing, and he was in shock, completely dumbfounded. I then said I was going to pray and asked how I can specifically pray for them. She sobbed even harder and couldn’t speak, so he explained how they have had a really rough couple of years. Their house burned down last year. He got in trouble with the law and is on probation, which is why his license is suspended.
“I responded with how I didn’t think it was an accident that he hit me today. I asked them if they have heard of Jesus and the gospel, and they said, ‘Yes.’ I asked if they know Him as their Savior, and they again said, ‘Yes.’ I explained how beautiful the gospel is because Jesus gave us something that we don’t deserve. I further shared the hope of His death and resurrection, and because of that, we can have peace and freedom in spite of life not being fair.
“But I firmly emphasized to him that this doesn’t mean we can break the law. While I’m letting this go, I was adamant that he has to obey the law, and he cannot be driving without a license.
“I encouraged them not to do life alone and get plugged in with their church. I reminded them that we have a good Father who loves to give good gifts to His children, so they can ask Him for what they need. I then prayed over them, asking the Lord that they would receive a breakthrough and He would provide. I prayed that they would feel the loving arms of their Father and be enveloped in His peace.”
Brett finishes, “Before I walked away, I told him again not to break the law. He apologized once more, and I said, ‘It was supposed to happen.’ ”
“Wow.” I sat there a bit stunned.
“Mercy triumphs over judgment.”—These Words sweep into my mind like a smile from the Spirit.
Yes, mercy. It’s one thing to shout judgment from behind a screen, or a social media post, or a news report. We demand judgment for those who deserve it; we shout justice for those who’ve been wrongly judged.
But then the news, the nameless person, the emotionally embellished post fades away and becomes a real, made-in-the-image-of-God human. You aren’t glaring in anger at a blue-lit screen; you’re looking into the eyes of a man sweating, apologizing profusely, and shaking in his rain boots that slipped off the brake to cause the accident.
“Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
The word mercy flashes over the face with beads of sweat dripping off his brow because you see a Man who sweat drops of blood on His brow before going to His judgment…
For you.
This man had the opportunity to hit-and-run, but he stayed, dreading the looming punishment he deserves. Another Man just had to say the word, but He stayed, offering Himself up to the looming punishment He didn’t deserve…
For me.
Then all judgment fades away. A back alley in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Alabama becomes holy ground.
All of life is Holy if we look. All of life is the Gospel. All of life can be offering Mercy.
“But what if that man goes off again and could do more hurt and damage?”
Did God the Father say that to His Son about me? About you?—“What if they don’t accept My Mercy and abuse it?”
Oh, how I’ve abused it. Daily. We all have stood before Him with sweat dripping, white as a ghost, waiting for the verdict of judgment. Yet Mercy, Himself, still took all of our judgment because He knew that nobody else could perfectly obey the law.
God’s court of law does not operate like man’s court of law. Because Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17), and “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4, NKJV), mercy brings the freedom and victory, not more judgment.
Praise the Father that “His mercies never end. They are new every morning…” (Lamentations 3:22-23, HCSB), and “He does not treat us as our sins deserve” (Psalm 103:10, NIV). We’ve been gifted with mercy; therefore, those same mercies are able to flow out of us in these holy moments.
The sound of a literal gasp of undeserved mercy is sweeter than the sound of sirens bringing justice. Sweat and panic turn to cries of relief and blessing.
We pray that as he walks away from a car “accident” that could have brought about further punishment but instead brought freedom, he will have grasped the implications of “mercy triumphs over judgment,” changing the direction of his life forever.
“It’s only a car,” Brett mumbles under his breath as we make our way back en route. Tears now flow down my face as I reach over and massage Brett’s neck, where recent financial strain has made it tense.
A dent in the back of a car is nothing compared to the costly scars of Mercy.
And it will be a reminder that a face, with a name, with an eternal soul will always be worth…
“Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:12-13, NIV)
“Baby, they’s justice and they’s mercy. If you not sure what to do and you gotta choose one or the other, I say always go the mercy way. If you make a mistake, make it for mercy. Bad mercy don’t hurt nearly like bad justice…”
- Grandmother Whitaker from Theo of Golden