Christian Living

It's difficult not to have a hard attitude towards chronically problem people and want to just write them off.  

Jonah didn't want to go to the wicked city of Nineveh, as God told him, to minister to them. Jonah had given up on Nineveh, which, incidentally, was an enemy of the Israelites. He flagged God and walked the other way. He decided to go on a cruise and jumped on a ship and sailed away. God sent a storm, causing the ship to toss and turn.  The ship's captain was incredulous when he found Jonah sleeping during the storm. In time, the crew learned that Jonah caused the storm, and after talking with God, threw him into the sea. A whale swallowed Jonah and Jonah prayed to God to release him. After a three-day time out, God freed Jonah from the whale.  

Nineveh called on God, repented and turned from their evil ways. But that didn't sit right with Jonah.  He sat down and parked himself east of the city, waiting for God to reign down fire and brimstone. Jonah sat there with his Ipod, ready to capture the destruction and put it on U-tube and link it to his Facebook account.  

But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.  And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” Jonah 4:10-11 

God spared Nineveh. 

I confess that after people who took advantage of me became homeless, living in their Suburban with pets, I cheered on the heavy rain, knowing that one of the married couple is handicapped and the other recently recovered from a hospital stay. I imagined them struggling to get out of the truck to go to the restroom in the pouring rain. Collectively, I would describe them Jabba Hutt from Star Wars, which a movie critic said was a combination Cheshire Cat and a toad. The wife is the Cheshire Cat and the husband is the toad. They are gluttons, which caused problems with others. 

It is Godly to not put yourself in a position to be exploited and enable bad behavior.  A Christian brother once told me that if someone throws you off a bridge to not walk with them by bridges.  You shouldn't, however, he said, completely write them off. My friend with cancer occasionally asks about them. When I took on a demeanor that I didn't really care about them and wondered why she did, she responded "I don't like them, but they are people."  

She's right, you know. 

Made in God's image, people have intrinsic value. God restores sinners by grace, molding us like coal, and renewing us into the diamonds he created. 

There was once an acquaintance of mine whom his mother and other people almost gave up on. At a homeless meal, one of the hosts ministered to him. The guy was walking around in a stupor mumbling "I need to go to rehab." The host sat down at a table with him and talked with him at length.  

Sometime after the meal, I saw him at a short-term rehab when I visited a friend there with his girlfriend. He seemed serious about rehab and was determined to really get with the program, as he understood the gravity of his problem. He transferred to another rehab in another area, and the last I heard he was doing better, even had a part time job. 

People can come around, turning from their besetting sins. I did. It's up to God, not us, when they are given a thumbs up or a thumbs down. 

"He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand." Psalm 40:2