MERCY WITHOUT PRICE

> MERCY WITHOUT PRICE

It came to me

when I had nothing left to offer—

no strength to bargain,

no goodness to present,

no words that could make me worthy.

I stood empty.

And still—

it came.

Not as a reward

for something I had done,

not as a wage

for effort or endurance,

not as a prize

for finally becoming enough—

but as a gift

that asked nothing in return.

I did not earn it.

I could not.

For mercy does not measure.

It does not calculate.

It does not wait for balance.

It sees the broken place

and enters anyway.

Like light

that does not ask permission

from the darkness it removes,

it found me

where I had already given up

on being found.

And in that moment,

I understood:

this is a wealth

no hand can hold,

no system can trade,

no power can control.

It is given

where there is no claim.

It remains

where there is no right.

It grows

where it is received,

not deserved.

So I let go

of the need to prove,

the need to justify,

the need to stand on something of my own—

and simply received.

And in receiving,

I was changed.

Not made greater,

but made new.

For mercy without price

does not leave the soul as it found it—

it restores

what was never purchasable,

and gives

what could never be bought.  

Steven G. Lee 

April 27, 2026