April 24, 2020

Have you ever been out-matched, out-witted or out-played? Of course, we all have, unless you are that rare exception who happens to be the brightest, strongest, and best of the best. Ok! Seriously! Here is the more important question: 

Have you ever been out-loved?

To be out-loved happens when people go over and above the call of duty to express love. They lavish love and care on you in ways that mean the world to you. That has happened on many occasions for me. I remember a time when my car lost a timing belt and I could not afford to fix it. I was a seminary student, single and broke. The church I was serving as student pastor put together an auction on a Sunday night where they auctioned off cakes and pies. I was trying to bid for them because I needed the food :-) but in the end, they handed me all the money collected and many of the cakes and pies from that night! I was shocked and overjoyed with love from them. 

That is one story among many that I could recall. How about you?

Love like that coming from followers of Jesus in whom God has placed His love is not surprising. It should be normal, natural...ordinary. Jesus said that we should love our enemies and pray for them (Matthew 5:43-48). 

However, what does it say when Christians are out-loved by non-Christians? 

That is the story of Jonah 1. 

When you read this familiar story, you immediately recognize that Jonah has been called by God to be His prophet. Jonah does not like the assignment he has been given and rebels. He flees opposite of where God called him and gets on a ship to get as far away from God as he can. Now, Jonah knows that fleeing from the Lord will not end well, so what does Jonah do? He gets other people to step into his mess! As the ship goes out to sea, the Lord hurls an incredible storm toward them. The sailors are all pagans who worship the gods of man's imagination, but they know something is wrong. 

They played a pagan game to find out who the trouble maker was and God used that game to expose Jonah. The men questioned Jonah and he told them that he was fleeing from the Lord's presence. Rather than the men being angry and throwing him immediately overboard, they were afraid. Jonah suggested that they throw him overboard because God was really after just him. That's what I would have done. hat about you? But not these men.

"Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land but they could not, for the sea grew more and more fierce against them (Jonah 1:13). This verse blows me away! What happened here is the result of what happens when a Christian disobeys the Lord: they cover up their Christianity. 

Jonah was out-loved by people who should have cared less about him. When God's love should have been poured out on these men, the men poured love out on Jonah. What a humbling experience! But this is what happens when our hearts are turned from light to dark, from sacrifice to selfishness, from love to hate, from life to death. 

If Jonah could be out-loved, how easily can we be out-loved. I believe these are the times when God uses unbelievers to show us that what unbelievers can do in their unbelief, self-centeredness and general kindness toward humanity should not be the Christian's standard. We should not be striving to match a non-Christians love but to out-love their love. Disobedience, sin and the like are all things that will blur that, complicate matters and get us moving on paths away from God's will. 

So, are you getting out-loved? What can we do on a day-today basis to out-love the people around us? It's first starts with asking God to forgive us for walking away from His direction. Then we must willfully start moving toward Him. Once we are walking toward God, we will have eyes to see the needs before us and respond with outstanding love.

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