A Sleeping Narcissist

Jonah 4:9-11 And God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry for the loss of the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die!¹⁰ Then said the Lord, You have had pity on the gourd, for which you have not labored nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.¹¹ And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons not [yet old enough to] know their right hand from their left, and also many cattle [not accountable for sin]?

All Jonah cared about was himself and his comfort. His self-centeredness went so deep that he turned a blind eye to the possible deaths of 120,000 children. What’s really interesting regarding this passage is that God not only cared for the cruel Ninevites, and their children, He also cared for the cattle that would die if He brought judgment and destruction. But not Jonah.

In the 1980’s the psychological designation of narcissus began to pick up popular, cultural steam as it entered pop psychology designating someone we used to categorize as self-centered. Sunday, August 24 I googled the question: What do you call someone who stubbornly refuses to change their behavior? I was surprised by one of the articles I discovered. It stated: “People with narcissistic personality disorder are extremely resistant to changing their behavior, even when it’s causing problems.”

What is repentance? Change. First it begins with an acknowledgement that you have missed God’s Perfect Way of Love. Next it culminates with a change of mind which leads to a change in lifestyle. Elul is a time of conversion and repentance in order to seek God.

Jnh. 1:5-6 – Jonah refused to have his mind changed – refused to be teachable – regarding his responsibility for his neighbors. How many messages have you heard, repeating the same theme, that you have refused to change your mind, behavior, actions or attitude about? Are you Christ-centered or self-centered in your lifestyle and actions? Is it possible to be a follower of Jesus and still remain a narcissist? Are you teachable? Is your thinking aligning more with the truths of God’s Word and the example of Christ than the lies of this world and popular culture? Has your thinking and lifestyle been changed to be more in line with Jesus and His Word in the past year or would others state you have remained relatively the same?

Jnh. 1:6; 2:1-2 – Jonah had become faithless in prayer – choosing sleep over praying for his neighbors. Jesus told Disciples – Followers of Jesus – to watch and pray. Would you characterize your spiritual life as watching and praying? Do you watch and pray with Jesus? Do you have a daily quiet time with the Lord? Do you sleep while a small minority remain faithful in prayer? Are you sleeping while third world countries and believers are spending sleepless nights in prayer? Are you spending time in leisure while brothers and sisters around the world faithfully pray as they face the threat of death, rape, persecution, torture, beating and imprisonment? What does your prayer life reveal about your faith?