this step enough

We are a world missing its moral compass.

We don’t know which way to turn.

A thousand choices lie before us,

But we don’t know how to discern.

‘Just be yourself,’ the anthem rings,

But no one believes this wholly true.

In practice: treat others with respect,

And use this standard in all you do.

Boundary lines should be considered,

Your freedom ends where it touches mine.

But another problem now arises,

For who decides these lines?

And now the absence truly shows,

As chaos soon ensues.

Myriad voices define myriad standards,

‘Morality is as you choose.’

But who can decide which weighs more?

Who has eyes clear to see?

Which right is more important;

That to life or autonomy of the body?

I’d like to think us selfless,

But I just know it isn’t so.

We cannot build morality;

Our compassion is too low.

Morality should be objective,

Not decided when the time arrives.

Morality should be the foundation stone

On which we build our lives.

We’ve strayed so far down our own paths,

Taken the broad, well-trodden roads.

Like flippant children who act on whim,

Masquerading as social justice heroes.

I have the answer; you might not like it,

It’s been evaded by many through time.

There is only one true compass; the eternal Rock;

God Almighty; the great I AM.

He alone can set the standard,

For morality cannot change.

He decides what’s right and wrong;

That’s not our duty to arrange.

The missing compass of today

Is twisting us in knots.

Contradiction and hypocrisy;

Confused and muddled thoughts.

Our choices are decided,

Based on how we feel.

But there are others in this world;

We’re just one part of the wheel.

Return to God; He knows best,

He does not change from day to day.

His ways are fair, and He is just,

We can trust Him come what may.

***

----- Isaiah 40:28.

Of course, it’s not necessarily physical places that we try to avoid.

Sometimes we avoid the prodding of the Holy Spirit, as God convicts us of a habitual sin. It’s scarily easy to compartmentalise our thoughts and simply ignore what we don’t want to hear. We are very good at finding excuses for our sins, ignoring what God is telling us and avoiding the truth at all costs.

2. Our sins hurt those around us.

Jonah brought the sailors on his ship into a life-threatening storm. They started to throw their goods; their livelihoods, overboard in a desperate effort to stay afloat.

There is no such thing as a private sin. What is done in secret will affect relationships, interactions and the way we live our lives. We cannot justify our sins any more simply because they’re not clear to those around us. And if we’re honest; many sins are private. Lust, jealousy, greed, pride, and more; all of these can be private thoughts and opinions that we harbour, seemingly to ourselves.

But my thoughts will affect my actions, and my actions impact those around me. So avoiding my sin doesn’t just damage my relationship with God, it also hurts those around me.

3. We act out of duty and obligation but God still uses us.

I really did not want to move to the UK to start that Master's. Even as I was packing to move, I wrestled with God, praying that He’d provide me a way out. I arrived, started the course, found a part-time job and kept wrestling.

But God’s will will be done.

The Creator of the universe, the Sustainer of life, the Saviour of the human race; He is going to accomplish what He sets out to do. What a comfort that is! Nothing can come between what God has planned for me, not even myself.

I think this realisation presents us two choices; we can either lean into and embrace it, revelling in the privilege of participating in God’s plan, or we can sulk on the outside, spectating the unfolding of His glorious plan.

God could have sent someone else to call the Assyrians to Him but He chose Jonah to deliver the message. God doesn’t need us to accomplish His goals, but He invites us to participate with Him, being part of His work. What a privilege that is!

4. We turn against God when our plans don’t work out.

In the final chapter of Jonah, we witness Jonah’s anger at God for not carrying out His plan as Jonah had expected. It’s worth remembering; the Assyrians were not Jonah’s people, but a powerful and fearsome neighbour. The resentment he harboured against them likely stemmed from a rather reasonable fear. But it was God’s plan to save them, and as concluded earlier, God’s plans will succeed (and are ultimately for the best).

God’s saving work of the Ninevahites “displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry” (Jonah 4:1). He is angry with God and tries to make it an ‘I told you so’ moment, insisting that he had known all along that God wouldn’t follow through with the divine destruction he had foretold.

“I am angry enough to die,” he tells the Lord (4:9).

Don’t we do this too? When life doesn’t go quite as we had planned, we turn our circumstances on God, faulting Him for not working things out how we wanted them to go. We look at those around us and bemoan their seemingly perfect lives. Bitterness takes root and we start to believe the lie that everyone else is experiencing perfect lives, where everything works out great for them and clearly God must have forgotten about or neglected us along the way. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Comparison is the thief of joy. We are angry and dissatisfied with God when we forget that He owes us nothing. We are living and breathing because of His love for us. Who are we to question His ways? He has worked out a plan for each of our lives and we are called to trust that that is the best path by which we most glorify Him. We must seek our satisfaction in Him alone. It’s a difficult but very important lesson.

**
Jonah had a choice; he could participate with God, or he could pout as a distant spectator and then later begrudgingly acknowledge that God’s way is the best.

We too have this choice; we are called to participate with God. God is going to
get what He wants either way, but He still wants us to participate, not
spectate.

Previously published by Thought Catalog at https://thoughtcatalog.com.