Mercy is defined as compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm. Oh, how merciful, our God has been to me. If I only knew God, the merciful one. I am brother Aderson, and this is my story . . .
After my graduation in 2005, I started working for a Technical Oil Company (I was in my early 20’s). I had plans of getting a house, buying a car, and getting married at the age of 28.
I was living a good life, partying a lot, and going to church when I felt like it. At that time I was baptized but never went to confession.
I used to think that my sins would disappear after I stayed a month away from God. Yes, I was that bad. I would get intimate with a girl and after some months go to communion. I did not understand the gravity of my sin. Now I know I was defiling the Eucharist—and it is a sacrilege.
So, at that time, I was working offshore, staying isolated for days and even months and the first thing you do when you are onshore is party and women. I did not care that much about church — my priority was to go out.
Anytime I was with a girl doing something that displeased the Lord I would have a check in my spirit, but I would dismiss it… see guys, God, in His mercy, never gave up on me. He always drew my attention… One day after I spent time with my girlfriend, I had flu for almost one month. I was warned before, but I did not pay attention. This same year I also lost my Job… man I was blind, I could not see the signs.
After losing my job, I started looking for another one, I applied for different companies—they had me interviewed, and so on but I never got the job. Today I know that it was God ́s hand in all these failures — if I can call them failures…. To me it was grace.
After two years I started working in a small company, and I was already 28 years of age. I did not have a house or a wife, but I had a small car, which I sold afterward.
As I started working, I started dating a girl that was not for me. I was blind and in love. I ignored all the signs, and worst, I was heading towards hell because of fornication. It is not that I was enjoying what I was doing, I did not. But I was so attracted to this Girl that she was my god…. Thank you, Jesus, for your mercy… One day, a week after spending a night in a hotel with this girl, God came to my rescue. I did nothing to deserve it, I did not confess my sin, I did nothing. But because He is so merciful, He sent his sweet Blessed Mother to me, and Holy Spirit convicted me of all my sins. Guys, I deserved punishment, because I was offending God repeatedly, but he did not take into account all my sins. He looked at me—his lost child—and he rescued me….
How many times [do] we run away from God because of our sins, failures. If we only knew how merciful He is, we would run to him and not from him. How many of us shy away from him, trusting more in our misery and forgetting about His mercy…? How many people take their life because they see no hope, no solution to their problems? I was rescued without any merit, only because He is merciful…
— Aderson
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