Inspiring Change Every Day with Grace
Have Mercy On Me!
“That’s not fair!” This is a cry we learnt from childhood, from classrooms and even to courtrooms. Fairness is the word people throw around when they feel wronged or overlooked, we carry it into adulthood expecting life to play by the same playground rules. But unfortunately, fairness is not always justice and real justice, doesn’t always look fair.
Fairness tends to follow a formula. It wants things split down the middle. It says everyone should get the same, do the same, and be judged the same. It looks clean on paper. But life isn’t paper.
Some people start the race 10 meters behind. Others trip along the way or never even got invited to run. So when fairness demands that we treat them the same, it might actually mean leaving someone behind.
Just look around, there are still children who sit on dusty floors to learn, who cross rivers and walk for miles to attend school, just to sit the same BECE exam as the child who was dropped off in an air-conditioned car. Fair? Maybe. But just? Not really.
Now add mercy to the mix, and things get even more uncomfortable. Mercy feels like a loophole to some or a cheat code. Why should someone who broke the rules get another shot? Why should someone who hurt others be shown kindness? But mercy isn’t weakness.
Mercy is the wisdom to know that some broken people don’t need punishment, they need healing. Some hard hearts don’t crack open until they’ve been treated in a way they don’t deserve. Ghana’s recent decision to decriminalise suicide is a powerful example.
Instead of treating suicide attempts as crimes, the law now recognises that such people need therapy, not prison. That’s mercy; real, practical, and life-saving.
Think about it. Every time we demand fairness without context, we risk becoming cold judges in a courtroom of our own making. But when we lead with mercy, we invite people into change.
Nelson Mandela once said, “Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping it will kill your enemies.” Mercy is choosing to heal instead of hate. And in many ways, it’s a higher form of justice, it restores what punishment never could.
Justice and mercy are not enemies. They are dance partners. One holds the line, the other holds the heart. When they move together, we get something powerful: redemptive justice.
That’s the kind of justice that doesn’t just settle scores, but rewrites stories. It’s the kind that looked a guilty woman in the eye and said, “Go, and sin no more.”
The burden of fairness is this: it’s never satisfied. It keeps score, it feeds envy, and it divides people into winners and losers. But justice paired with mercy does something else, it gives room for growth, for redemption and for the messy but beautiful reality that humans are not numbers on a scale. We are souls, all walking wounded, all in need of both truth and tenderness.
Maybe what the world needs isn’t more scales, but more stories, of people who were given a second chance and became better. Because true justice doesn’t just balance the scales. It rebuilds the broken.
Can a world obsessed with fairness learn to make room for mercy? Share your response anonymously through this link https://gdpd.xyz/dailygrace
No Copyright infringement intended.
PS: Kindly Follow our WhatsApp Channel at https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VawUlQGBPzjQXzs6fX2Q for more engaging content.
