Jonah

Some of God's messages are hard. The Book of Jonah tells of an unsung hero (Jonah) sent to a gentile tribe, the Assyrians, to warn them and make them aware of God's great mercy available to them if they repent their sinful ways. God's forgiving ways in this story predate Christ by 700 years. God has always asked for us to love and obey. God takes care of the rest (food, shelter, the beauty of our earth).
Much of The Book (our Bible) is like this. Over and over we are shown in story after story that God loves human beings. All humans. All the time. No matter what.
Yet we get angry with God (like Jonah did) and confused and saddened by how we see the world going. Just like Jonah who was so angry that the Nineveh citizens were spared. We get angry too and question why??? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why are some people asked to bear so much? And why do others get forgiven worse acts then we can even think about?
Sometimes I tell myself to remember God's words to Job in chapters 38 and 39--when God asked Job who questioned God's ways where were you when I made the earth? And Job answered in 40:4, Behold, I am vile. We are vile, evil, and yet we live (change the letters and have all three!) And tomorrow I will forget the lesson of Jonah and Job as soon as some unfair thing happens. And it will. I will then think it through, after a time, and realize that I'm the lucky one that Christ died for--so even my anger and rage are forgiven. Though I am vile and evil I live, because Christ died for me.
But it's not always easy--except of course for all those things that God does provide gratis--beautiful skies, oceans, beaches, mountains, salvation.......