Rejoice in Truth

“[Love] does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth.”

1 Corinthians13:6

                Have you ever met a person whose future seems so clear to you that one would think it’s tattooed on their forehead? I met one such person. He was  one of the most privileged, laziest people I’ve ever had the misfortune of being acquainted with. If you’re from a small town, like I am, you are probably at least mildly aware of what small town politics look like. In Hyde Park, we have the Rte. 9 sdie of town, which is typically the ritzy, pampered, rich-wanna-be’s. He was certainly from that side of town. I, on the other hand, am from the. . .let’s just be real – the white trash side of town. This pathetic excuse for a human being only ever found joy in being drunk or getting high. He lived for the weekends, although I’m not sure why it mattered. He was known to go to work both drunk and high. How do I know? Because I worked with him.

                One day, not long after he had quit, someone came up to me waving the local newspaper in my face. Guess who was arrested this week for fleeing the police and possession of illegal drugs? You guessed it, the Darling of Cranberry’s himself. I felt overrun with two emotions. The first was an extreme sadness. I wasn’t surprised in the least. In fact, I had kind of expected it. Here was a young man with no motivation, no purpose, no vision and no hope. It saddened me that I could not bring myself to be shocked. I couldn’t rejoice in my being right. The other emotion was bewilderment at the person who conveyed this news to me. They were, dare I say, gleeful? Anyone who knew this kid knew that he was heading down this path, and knew that he didn’t have the character to pick himself up out of this situation and turn his life around, or the brains to call out to God for grace and mercy. He would continue to spiral downward until he hit rock bottom, unless of course, intervention from another Source came first. But how could someone actually enjoy watching the first step of his demise? How could they take pleasure in the unraveling of another life. Maybe that was too close to home for me, but I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it.

                Jonah is the classic example of how not to respond to other’s people sin. God told him to go to Nineveh and preach a message of repentance to a nation that was so entrenched in their sin that they could not distinguish their right from their left. When Jonah eventually got to Nineveh and preached this was their reaction:

“So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles saying,

Let neither man nor beast, herd not flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered in sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?

Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them and He did not do it.”

                Wow! Great story, right? Not in Jonah’s eyes. “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.” He was so angry, in fact, that he thought it would be better for him to be dead than to be alive. He did not rejoice in truth; he rejoiced in iniquity. Believing that their sin would bring judgment on them brought him more joy than knowing that their repentance would bring forgiveness.

                I confess, while I couldn’t hold this opinion of Matt, I have held the same view of other people. But God would desire for me to have the same heart of compassion for His creation that He has, to have the same disgust of sin that He has, and to have the same delight in truth that He has.

Application: Today I will pray for someone that I have a hard time praying for. Namely, the President.