Micah 6:8 (NIV)
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and
to walk humbly with your God.
If God exercised justice without mercy, we’d all be facing condemnation. Let’s be quick to extend the same mercy to others.
Mercy is so hard for me;
oh, where do I begin?
Its arc can meet trajectory
of a deadly sin.
There are places in this life
not as one might think,
putting soul and conscience into strife
upon a deadly brink.
They say, no man let behind,
and it’s how morale can thrive,
but as event and memory remind,
that the last word should be ‘alive’.
“When the women come out to cut up what remains”
is the contracting soldier’s constant refrain.
The penultimate line is from Kipling:
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
and the women come out to cut up what remains,
jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
and go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Thank you, Andrew, for expanding my knowledge of Kipling.
A lesson I would not have wanted to impart, or to learn.