The words of noted theologian Karl Barth represent to me, the way you and I, imperfect and flawed as we may be, can and should respond to the exceptional mercy bestowed upon us by our own heavenly King: "When once the day comes when I have to appear before my Lord, then I will not come with my deeds, with the volumes of my "Dogmatics" on my back. All the angels there would have to laugh. But then I shall also not say, 'I have always meant well; I had good faith.' No, then I will only say one thing, 'Lord, be merciful to me, a poor sinner!'"
"Teach me to feel another's woe, to hide the fault I see; that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me."
Alexander Pope
Poet