057: Jonathan

April 13, 2010
1 Samuel 18 & 20

Tonight at The Vine – the college/post college aged Bible Study/community group I attend – we were looking at Jonathan and his character. I’ve noticed Jonathan in the past, but tonight I was struck again by how much I’m impressed with him.

As the king’s oldest son, Jonathan was the crown prince, and thus could have (maybe even should have) felt entitled to authority, power, popularity, etc. But he had the vision of a bigger picture – the picture of what God was doing, more than just what he was doing.

I want to have that kind of vision in my life.

Jonathan saw that God was choosing to replace his family with David’s family, and rather than throw a fit about it – or just walk away, which he could have done – he chose instead to support and help what God was doing. He loved David and did whatever he could to support him, even when he had to choose between David and his own father.

Something that Amber said tonight was striking to me: she said that character is displayed both by what we do and by what we don’t do. I’ve heard character described as “who you are and what you do in the dark when no one is looking,” but I hadn’t thought about it in her terms before. I know that in my own life I’m very, very often of either not doing something when I should do it, or doing something when I shouldn’t.

I am challenged by Jonathan to consider more carefully what I should do or what I shouldn’t do. I want to be a woman of character, but far too often I say things I shouldn’t say, take up offense when I shouldn’t, think I’m entitled to something when I’m not, and demand rights I have no justification to demand.

Oh, how sick of myself I get sometimes! I’m just ready for Jesus to return – for my own selfish sake. But I know that when I look at the world and my life in the scope of God’s big picture, I need to be MORE eager to share Jesus with the people around me AND continue to be transformed by His work in my life.

I kind of just wish I could sit down and have a conversation with Jonathan sometime. Maybe I’ll ask him if he’d have coffee with me when I get to heaven someday.