Lesson Three: Who am I to think I can get away with my disobedience effecting only me?
/The Lessons I Learnt From Trying To Give A Homeless Man A Sandwich.
Lesson Three: Who am I to think I can get away with my disobedience affecting only me?
If you haven’t read the preceding post where I share the story of trying to give a homeless man a sandwich, I encourage you to take a few minutes and read about it here.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me." But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. And the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then the sailors became afraid, and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, laid himself down, and fallen sound asleep. Jonah 1:1-5
In the story of Jonah we see a disobedient servant literally running in the opposite direction to the call of God.
Admittedly my disobedience with Graeme was not running in the opposite direction but the similarity in my story and Jonah’s story is the cost of disobedience.
In really simple terms, my disobedience cost me more because the sandwich I purchased was $7 versus the cost of a coffee for $4. It cost me more because there were a number of people eating lunch close by when I went to give Graeme his sandwich who would have seen Graeme’s rejection of my offer, versus earlier in the morning no one being around (there’s also a lesson to be learned in doing things in secret for the glory of God versus in the open for the praise and adoration of men).
For Jonah, the cost was bringing potential harm to those on the boat with him and it cost him three days in the belly of a fish! Delay in responding to God’s prompting and it could very well cost you more than you anticipated.
Disobedience does cost us. It could also cost those around us.
We could avoid a lot of hurt and pain if we simply put our agenda aside and followed God when he called.
The reality is we are never going to get this perfect every time. We need to exercise grace for ourselves as God’s ultimate grace covers us. I can reflect on this experience with Graeme and allow the hard lessons to change my character whilst also reminding myself I am not perfect and will do better next time.
