The first priority … mercy

Morning: Psalm 38; Lamentations 2:8-15; I Corinthians 15:51-58

Evening: Psalm 119:25-48; Matthew 12:1-14

“What’s my first priority?” asks a little inner voice.  It can get drowned out by louder voices clamouring for me to put them first.  ‘Pressing priorities’ and ‘deadlines’ may appear to be more important than they are.  Erma Bombeck wisely joked, “I love deadlines … I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by!”  When they pressed Jesus about the law, he responded, in effect, like Mr. Bumble in Dickens’ Oliver Twist, "If the law supposes that, the law is a ass—a idiot."  For Jesus, if our much-vaunted ‘priorities’ do not serve mercy, they should wait.