February 21st, 2024
I have come to love the story of Jonah. The guy is infinitely relatable. God asks him to do a hard thing, and he tries his best to run away and hide from it. When that doesn’t work, he reluctantly bears the message of repentance to people who he really wants to see punished. When they listen and repent, God has mercy on them, but Jonah remains bitter and angry that they didn’t get punished. The people and the king of Nineveh are the real heroes of the story. It took nearly no time for them to listen to Jonah’s message, believe it was true, and commit to doing things to right their wrongs.
How rare is this today? I have gotten so tired of seeing the stale PR-protecting statements made by politicians or bishops or companies that have caused harm. Nobody wants to admit fault and face the consequences.
That’s why the recent story about Costco unionizing made such a splash – we were all so shocked to see a leader actually respond to employees’ complaints by saying, “You’re right. We’ve done something wrong.” But that’s still not all that needs to be done – only time will tell if Costco makes changes to improve the working conditions.
My two-year-old learns new phrases quickly, often before he fully understands them. One of his more recent ones is, “That’s my fault,” because I used it once when I tried to tell him that I had done something wrong. He recently dumped a big bag of crayons on the floor while I was putting his baby brother down for a nap, and when I walked back in the room I said, “Sol, why did you dump all the crayons on the ground?”
I probably had more of an accusatory tone than I meant to, because he started saying, “That’s my fault.” I tried to explain to him that it's okay, as long as he picks them up and puts them back in the bag.
It didn’t work. They stayed on the floor, and he just kept walking around saying, “That’s my fault.”
I wonder how much we look like this to God. We dump out the proverbial bag of crayons and say, “That’s my fault”, but do nothing to actually rectify the situation. We make a hazard for ourselves and those around us, and unlike the people of Nineveh who take action to show their remorse and repair their relationship with God, we get stuck feeling bad with a mess surrounding us.
Lent is a good time to examine our consciences, and our lives in general, to look for these messes. Which relationships have I harmed recently, and how could I repair them? How have I been complicit in social sin – systematic racism, environmental harm, or exploitative labor practices – and how could I change my actions?
And while I don’t actually believe God intends to smite us for these things, I do believe that when we make the effort to repair harm we’ve caused, God will send Grace to help us along the way.
Kelly Sankowski is a freelance writer and editor based in Toledo, Ohio, where she lives with her husband and two sons.