Are you ever appalled by your own selfishness? I often am. I recently pulled up to the street corner where Alex begs for money. (If you would like the back story on Alex please read "I really am a horrible person") I have reached out to Alex multiple times, initially with a great response but since then it has been hit and miss. I was in a hurry to get to an appointment and didn't want to bother with him. So I pulled over in the far lane and hoped he wouldn't recognize me. Well that didn't work. He came running across the lanes of traffic to say "Hi" to me. The light turned green and I pulled away. I immediately felt horrible.
I realized I had been sucked back into my own selfishness again. I was trying to ignore the obvious need right in front of me because of its potential inconvenience. So I decided to make it right. Alex had mentioned that he was sick. So I went and bought him some hot soup and coffee and went back to give it to him. I was reminded again through that experience that compassion or selfishness are moment by moment decisions. Each day I can live for myself or I can choose to live for something greater.
Today, I would like to look at the final chapter in the book of Jonah. Jonah is an example of someone who knows so much about God but who in this story chooses to act so little like him. God's word says that Jonah is ticked off at God's mercy. Listen to what he tells God, "Didn't I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. Just kill me now, Lord! I'd rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen."
How appalling! Jonah has every preacher's wildest dream come true: To preach to a city of 120,000 people and see the entire city repent and turn to God! Jonah should be dancing in the street, but instead he is sitting on a hill pouting and complaining to God about his mercy. He is so intense about this that he says he would rather die than see these people not get what they deserve. He is essentially saying "I wish they would all go to hell!"
I ask the question again: "How can someone who knows so much about God act so little like him?" But then I realize that I am guilty of the same thing. In those moments when my schedule, my priorities and desires are more important to me than sharing God's grace and truth with another person, I am essentially doing the same thing.
I think all Christians can get sucked into the trap of knowing a lot about God, but not acting like him. I think that is one of the primary reasons why Non-Christians aren't impressed by Christianity: "They know too many Christians."
But all they way back in Genesis God declares his purpose for humanity "Then God said, 'Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.'" I refuse to be someone who knows a lot about God but doesn't act like him. That is why moment by moment, decision by decision, and choice by choice I determine to follow Christ and become more like him.
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