Everyday Love

At first glance, the major lesson for us to take away from the book of Jonah seems to be obedience. But why did Jonah run away in the first place? And, if the lesson really is obedience, why didn’t the story stop after Jonah finally obeyed God and fulfilled his mission?

I think it is because the underlying (and no less important) message is love. God does want obedience, but He wants us to love Him and others even more than that. Jonah’s problem was that he didn’t see or share God’s love for the world; all he could see was the Ninevites sin, not God’s love for them.

I make the same mistake all the time when I see a person or situation broken by sin, but I don’t love enough to let it burden my heart. It is easier to either let my heart grow cold and calloused to all the evil or grow bitter about it, instead of allowing myself to be stretched and grown by love. Loving like God does is painful and inconvenient, but it is the best way to point people to God.

But what does love do? As a woman, my tendency is to either worry about problems or try to solve them, but that’s not what love does. To love is to do more than feel people’s joy and pain; love takes the problems to God and becomes open to helping people when and how He leads. It is a difficult journey, but it is a journey well worth taking.

I don’t want to make the same mistake Jonah did. I don’t want to miss out on opportunities to point people to Christ because I don’t see them through His eyes. Loving big hurts big, but it rewards bigger; we may not see the results here on earth, but we will see them in Heaven.