Self-Centered in a Service Center

Here I sit in the service center of a Nissan Dealership in the middle of the Arizona desert, sipping their complimentary coffee, writing this devotional. How did I get here? Well, when I got out of my car at our Airbnb, ready to enjoy our weeklong family vacation here in the desert, I sniffed the ever-so slight aroma of burning oil. There I was, fresh from the grocery store and filled with early vacation enthusiasm, thinking to myself, “Maybe it’s no matter… this might be what 100-degree weather just smells like!”

A few trips in and out of the house carrying in the groceries, and the smell became a bit more pungent. With a pack of bottled waters in my hands, I bent down to look under the car and there it was! A continuous drip of oil from the underside of my van—the cause of the burning smell! Oh no, what am I going to do?! And in just that moment of horror and dismay, the plastic wrap around the 24 pack of bottled waters I was holding broke open, and bottles began to bounce and roll in 24 different directions down the incline of the driveway, straight into a busy road. 

Have you ever been in my shoes? Have you ever felt like it just seems everything is going wrong? It's incredible how quickly we can find ourselves despairing when a few negative things begin to compound into one whole negative outlook.  

The prophet Jonah did the same. He was sent by God to preach repentance and the possibility of mercy to a wicked city that he felt deserved God’s wrath. So, he ran from the assignment. Through a series of unfortunate events (including a famous story involving a whale), he finally and reluctantly resigned himself to fulfill God’s directive. After preaching, the people did repent, and they were spared—much to Jonah’s anger and dismay.

Now the most interesting part of the story to me is what happens in the final chapter of the book when Jonah, pouting on a hillside, is graciously shaded by a plant God causes to grow above his head. After he is relieved to be in the shade, God withers the plant and that’s not all:

“…at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, ‘It would be better for me to die than to live.’ But God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?’” (Jonah 4:7-9a)

As I sit here in a Nissan “Service Lounge”, God is asking me the same thing: “Is it right for you to be angry?” For Jonah, he had shrunk all the meaning in the world down to the physical comfort of the shade a little plant had provided him. In fact, he cared more about that plant, and his own comfort, than he had cared about all the lives of the people of the city of Ninevah whom God had spared from death. How misplaced was his anger? And how misplaced is my own anger? Frustrated as I am about a car I can fix, and a vacation I can return to in a few hours.

When we find ourselves angry and dismayed at the loss of comfort in our lives, we are wise to let God ask us: “Is it right for you to be angry?” There are so many things that are far more important, that should carry far more value, than the many daily inconveniences that turn us inside out and upside down. As Christians, we don’t live for our own comfort, we live for the lives of those around us. Maybe I should use this time to pray about the real and far more pressing needs of others? Maybe God has given me space to make a phone call to someone who I know is struggling? 

And it’s interesting, as I even begin to wonder about a purpose beyond my disappointment, I find my once-seething frustration is gone…   
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God, help us to live beyond the sin of self-centeredness and the common pursuit of our own comforts. Jesus—you became poor for our sake and endured so much so that we might be rich in you. And we cannot forget how rich we are, even in the times we feel most troubled. Continue to give us perspective about what really matters. Beyond the trivial setbacks we face, we’re here to serve and love the lives of those around us. Peace is found when we take ourselves out of the center of our own story and place you and your vision at the core of all we think and do.  
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“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” – Titus 2:11-14

— Andrew Schey