Check Your Attitude at the Door

Here's a tale in my house as old as... well, not time, but at least as old as my oldest daughter, and applies to all three of my children. "Today, honey, I want you to wash the dishes."

Instant frown, slumping shoulders. "Nah, I'll do something else instead."

"Not an option. The dishes need to be done, and I've asked you to do them. That's reason enough to get them done."

"But Mo-o-o-o-o-o-m-m-m-m-m-m."

"No buts. The sooner you get started, the longer you'll have to play later."

Sound familiar? Whether you have kids or whether you were a kid, at one time or another, you've probably had a similar conversation.

And I eye my reluctant, wayward child, standing at the sink, swishing bubbles in designs, patting the surface of the water, doing anything and everything he/she can do to avoid having to actually pick up a pan and clean it. 

Three hours and a frigid, watery dishpan later: Congratulations, my dear, you've washed one bowl.

I digress. Yesterday, in Jonah 2, the prophet tilts like a seesaw from the depths of despair to a hymn of praise -- all from the belly of a big fish. Today in Jonah 3, the seesaw tips back the other way. Jonah's got no thoughts of disobedience again -- he probably doesn't want to spend any more time in the fishy, stinky, smothering stomach chamber of an aquatic creature -- but he can "But L-o-o-o-o-o-r-r-r-r-d-d-d" his way right into Nineveh.

He's technically being obedient, but his heart isn't in it. 

I spent some time this morning thinking of the parental nature of God. 

Here's one view of Him: The Lord is a doting Father, a Heavenly Teddy Bear, to Whom we can run and hug and hide behind for security when we're afraid, but we sort of bury Him under the covers when we have friends over so they won't see our coping mechanism.

Here's the other view of Him: The Lord is Thor, holding His hammer aloft and tossing lightning bolts around like confetti, zapping anyone who doesn't do things the way we expect.

I submit that God is neither one nor the other, and that He is both and the other. 

He is love: "The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love" (Psalm 145:8). "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8).

He does discipline: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children" (Hebrews 12:5-7). "Do not take revenge, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord" (Romans 12:19).

God cannot be only one, and He cannot be only the other. Each part of His nature is just as essential to it as the other part, and out of that complete and total wholeness of His parenthood -- He tells Jonah to do His bidding.

The Word doesn't say exactly how Jonah obeyed the Lord, but the next chapter gives us a pretty clear picture of his attitude. Clue: it stinks. I can just imagine Jonah strolling through the streets of Nineveh, mumbling: "Forty more days, and Nineveh will be overturned."

"What? What was that? What did you say? Hey mister, you said something, but I couldn't quite hear it. Can you speak up?"

Makes me chuckle, but seriously, I kind of want to give Jonah a little shake. Stop sulking! Don't you realize, Jonah, that the very same compassion God is showing in warning the Ninevites is the very same compassion that met you in the belly of the fish and gave you salvation after the third day? I mean, "because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning! Great is Your faithfulness!" (Lamentations 3:22-23) For Jonah, this is quite literal: the fish couldn't consume Jonah, because of the Lord's great compassion. The poor fish had to vomit him out.

The Lord calls and commissions His prophet Jonah to do a specific job, and Jonah's attitude reeks worse than the fish stomach he's been sitting in. 

It's easy to point fingers, isn't it?

My second-grade teacher showed me something ingenious one time, or at least, I thought it was ingenious. Y'all probably already knew this:

Most of us point with our... um, pointer finger (go figure). When we do that, we've got three fingers pointing right back at us.

When my teacher showed us that, the whole class started pointing whole hands and laughing about the five-finger point, but the... um, point (heh heh heh) is this:

We have to check our attitudes at the door. When God asks us to do something, are we trudging off to do it, mumbling under our breath, patting soap bubbles and making swirlies until the water is freezing? Or are we digging in with a cheerful, willing, and obedient spirit? 

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving" (Colossians 3:23-24).

Who is the one who gives out the inheritance? Generally, it's the parent. Who is the one who receives the inheritance? Most often, it's the son or daughter. 

So as God's children, how about we roll up our sleeves and dive into the work that God gives us to do with a smell-good attitude rather than one that reeks? 

What is the work He's asking of us? Check out all these actions verbs:

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink" (Romans 12:20). "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you" (John 15:12). "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20). 

Sometimes... sometimes... I will look up from my work and find that my child has gone above and beyond what I've asked him/her to do. I'll look in awe at the cleaned up kitchen, the new tablecloth, the swept floor, the put away dishes. 

When that happens... it smells good. No more stench, no more rot molding on the attitude.

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who -- being in very nature God -- did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a Man, He humbled Himself and because obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:6-11).

We have a choice today, you know. We can look at the "wicked city" around us -- Nineveh of the 21st century. We can look at the citizens of this city. And we can mumble out the message God gives us for the lost sheep. Or we can speak up, open our mouths, fill our lungs, and -- with complete and good-natured obedience -- speak life.

"For God so loved the world... that He gave His one and only Son... that whoever believes in Him... shall not perish... but have eternal life" (John 3:16).