On a Pledge.

Hey folks. I haven't been posting too much this year, and that's been intentional. So sorry to those that have been missing that! But this year is a year of growth and learning for me, and I'm wanting to focus in on that.

However, I'm going to do a post mini-series over the next little while (not sure how long), around something I made a while ago.

That something is a pledge.

I've had pretty firm ideas about who I am and the kinds of standards that I live by and aspire to for a long time; but I wanted to put it down into something concrete. A promise to myself, if you will. But it turns out it's good I used the word pledge; Dictionary.com defines a pledge as "a solemn promise or agreement to do or refrain from doing something." Action is implicit in the definition. It's not just something you say, it's something you do. And that's something really important.

So, there are a few different points to my pledge. There's bits and pieces in it that relate across to My Ten Commandments - which, if you're not familiar with, you should go have a look at - but it's also a lot more specific. I'm going to be doing a post explaining each point. Not sure how much explaining each will take, but that's the idea. This post is just introducing the idea, and explaining the overarching point at the end.

My name is Brendan Raymond, and this is my pledge.

1. To be honest and faithful to my word, no matter who I give it to.
2. To value and protect life of all kinds.
3. To be courageous, and stand up for what I believe in.
4. To love and cherish that which is good.
5. To treat all people as priceless.
6. To be proactive, not just reactive.
7. To never hurt others.
8. To face and overcome my fears, so that I may in turn help others to overcome theirs.
9. To be there when I am needed most.
10. To encourage and support others.
11. To always learn and grow, in good times and bad.
12. To never judge another on something that I do not understand.
13. To seek understanding in the places that I lack.
14. To not harbour resentment, anger, hate, jealousy, or other poisoners of the soul.
15. To constantly ask God for help, for none of this can I do without Him.

And in all; to act with grace, mercy, and love to all.

"And in all; to act with grace, mercy, and love to all." And with all, ala my recent sermon on the topic.

This one is, for the most part, self-explanatory. But I'll delve in to it a little.

Mercy and grace can be bundled in to the one thing by many. But there is actually a difference. Mercy is not getting what you deserve; for example, if you should get punished for something you have done, and the person to deal it out chooses not to, that is mercy. Grace, however, is getting more than you deserve. It's then taking that same person, and loving them, and throwing a massive banquet for them, and bringing them into the family, and being incredible to them. There's a big difference.

Of course, if we have grace; then why mercy? Part of me is saying, darn, that's a good question. Is there a point to mercy when you already have grace? Honestly, I'm not really sure. Perhaps it was my way of acknowledging that I'm not always going to be able to be gracious (because I'm not perfect). One I'm going to need to think on.

But the other one is love. And this is very much in the stream of the well-known passage about love from 1 Corinthians 13; that without love, even if we can do incredible, amazing things, it all comes down to nothing. Love is the key. Love is the starting point. Love is the foundation.

Keep an eye out for the rest of these posts coming up. I'll put this one up on the Facebooks, but not the rest of them. You'll need to actually be proactive about that ;) I'm also thinking about perhaps doing a post on centred, foundational, and immersed before too long. If you don't get what that's about, then good. Means you can't read my mind.