A/C or Souls?

"'Then the Lord said, 'You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn't I feel sorry for such a great city?'"  Jonah 1-4

As we pulled into the gas station, I only had one thing on my mind -- my large Diet Dew. The car was barely parked before my door was opened. My feet barely touched the ground as I was flying towards the entrance. The crazy automatic doors were way too slow and I nearly smashed my face into them. It wasn't until I was about to open the car door with my new treasure in hand that I noticed two young women right in front of the store struggling to change a flat tire. Embarrassed, I put my drink in the car and went over and put on their spare tire.

Jonah had a hard time with the assignment God had given him. He wanted justice for the Assyrians not mercy. God, however, prefers mercy over judgement. So, when the Assyrians humbled themselves and turned to God, he withheld his planned destruction of the city. Jonah was ticked. "Kill me now God!" God seized the moment. Class was now in session. God sent a plant that provided shade for Jonah, but it soon wilted. He was "angry enough to die!" He didn't care about 120,000 people, but he sure loved that plant.

We can be so easily distracted. The next big business deal. The latest widget to make life easier. A to-do list that eats the average person for lunch. Winning an argument. Getting what we want when we want it the way we want it. It doesn't take very long before people drift into the background noise. Their need for Jesus and his mercy doesn't even cross our minds. But should our a/c go out on a 90-degree day, we'll move heaven and earth to get it back up and running. Too often, I look more like Jonah than I care to admit.

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