Living in Tension
Black lives matter. We’re beginning every devotional with these words as our prayer this week. You may experience them as a prayer of confession, of praise, of intercession, of [fill in the blank]… Black lives matter.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth…
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. - Jonah 3:1 - 4:1
We love to separate the world into the good guys and bad guys, the heroes and the villains. It’s actually an important developmental step for children… but it’s not maturity.
Perhaps that’s why God gives us the story of Jonah and the Ninevites. To the original audience of the tale, the Ninevites were the quintessential villains, those who had invaded and oppressed the Israelites for years. And yet when God tells them to get their act together, they respond, they repent, they get it right. And when Jonah the Israelite sees God’s heart of mercy towards them, instead of rejoicing, he gets really mad. He gets it wrong, and in fact, this is the pattern over and over again in the story. Those clear, clean lines of good guys v. bad, us v. them, become murkier and murkier. Whatever their respective mistakes, God clearly cares about both Jonah and the Ninevites.
What if God is inviting us to live in that tension? What if God is inviting to accept that our world is complex and navigating it requires real effort and faith to just keep going, just keep growing?
Author and racial justice activist Austin Channing Brown extends a similar invitation regarding our current moment: “If you think all we need for this moment in history is to ask ‘What would MLK do?’ It’s time for you to trouble the narrative. It’s time for you to move beyond simplistic, convenient narratives and wrestle with complexity and nuance… Trouble the narratives of white supremacy and anti-blackness. Or else we will keep repeating this cycle.” (Read the full post HERE.)
How has God been inviting you to live into tension these days? How have your narratives been troubled? Are you resisting these things or leaning in? (Or do you feel like you even have an option?) How does your experience of your circumstances shift if you see it as an opportunity for God to lead you and your communities toward greater maturity - towards shalom? Talk with Jesus for a few minutes about these things.