For the past month, my entire squad has been staying in Senga Bay, Malawi working with a ministry called Zehandi Missions. While we were there, our contact Johann shared about how the lush, verdant land we saw before us today was dead and ravaged by fire when he and his wife first acquired it. When God provided funds (the chief asked $10,000 for this hopeless wasteland, and the exact amount was provided by a donor, no more or less) for them to acquire this land, it became theirs. And the moment this land fell into their ownership, they loved it. There was nothing inherently great about this property. On the contrary, it was a terrible piece of land. But upon the simple truth that it belonged to them and was entrusted to them by the Lord, Johann and his wife poured forth their prayers into it. They would walk the land and ask for angels to come and plant seeds in the barren soil so there would be life. And because of their love for this land, soon there was life in places previously pronounced dead. Upon the green property they now owned, our contacts have continued loving the resurrected land by building ministries and disciples on it – a city on a hill, light in the darkness.
The love our contacts have for their land is illustrated well by G.K. Chesterton in “Orthodoxy” regarding a desperate district in London known as Pimlico (or at least it was a desperate place when Chesterton wrote this):
“It is not enough for a man to disapprove of Pimlico: in that case he will merely cut his throat or move to Chelsea [I assume this is a much nicer place to live]. Nor, certainly, is it enough for a man to approve of Pimlico: for then it will remain Pimlico, which would be awful. The only way out of it seems to be for somebody to love Pimlico: to love it with a transcendental tie and without an earthly reason. If there arose a man who loved Pimlico, then Pimlico would rise into ivory towers and golden pinnacles; Pimlico would attire herself as a woman does when she is loved. For decoration is not given to hide horrible things: but to decorate things already adorable. A mother does not give her child a blue bow because he is so ugly without it. A lover does not give a girl a necklace to hide her neck. If men loved Pimlico as mothers love children, arbitrarily, because it is THEIRS, Pimlico in a year or two might be fairer than Florence. Some readers will say that this is a mere fantasy. I answer that this is the actual history of mankind. This, as a fact, is how cities did grow great. Go back to the darkest roots of civilization and you will find them knotted round some sacred stone or encircling some sacred well. People first paid honor to a spot and afterwards gained glory for it. Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her.”
A love that is true does not love something because it is great. Things are great because they are loved. And love transforms not only places and things, but also people into greatness.
In the book of Jonah, God teaches the reluctant prophet this lesson on love by commanding him to preach repentance to the corrupt people of Nineveh. We all know that Jonah ends up getting swallowed by a big fish before he receives conviction to deliver this message. Even after he preaches this message, Jonah fails to understand the heart of God. In the end of the book, God brings forth a plant to bring comfort and relief to Jonah, and then destroys it. The prophet becomes incredibly angry over the destruction of this plant, because he “loved” it for its inherent provision and “greatness”. He thought he had legitimate reasons for loving this plant and then becoming angry enough to die at its death even though he never invested in it. It had provided him shade and comfort, and such strong emotions came despite the fact that he neither labored for it nor made it grow. Yet the Lord truly loves things into greatness. If the Lord had simply disapproved of the people of Nineveh, He would have left them to their destruction and would never have called Jonah to preach repentance to them. He would have never believed that Nineveh could change. And if the Lord had simply approved of the people of Nineveh, He would not have had the heart to hold them to a higher standard, and would never have called Jonah to preach repentance to them. He would have never believed that Nineveh needed change. But the Lord loved Nineveh. He loved it enough to want to change it, and at the same time, believe that it could be changed. He loved Nineveh into greatness because it belonged to him. He cared for the people in it, labored for them, and made them grow. Lastly, the Lord loved Jonah. Throughout the entire book, he wanted Jonah to have this same love – a love that brought people into repentance and greatness; not a love that came out of a reason. Nineveh had no reason for love in and of itself for the prophet, and he disapproved of the city, as the actions of the people in it were detestable. So even after Jonah’s task of preaching repentance was finished, God’s work in his prophet’s heart was not (hence, the private plant show). How deeply the Father wants His children to know and share His heart!
The idea of being loved into greatness has given me much comfort. Seeing that none of us are inherently great, the idea that the love of God brings forth greatness in what belongs to Him is pretty awesome. This is what the Lord has done for us, and this is what he enables us to do for others. He gives us this love that is jealous for what belongs to Him; this love that makes the worthless into the worthy and the weak into the warriors. After all, it is the presence of the children of Israel that makes the Promised Land the land flowing with milk and honey. And it is the Shekinah glory of God in the Holy of Holies with these children of Israel that makes the group of ex-slaves wandering in the desert a holy priesthood to all nations. May my team live up to its name – Zealous Love – as we walk forward knowing that we have been loved into greatness to do the same in the countries we will go and in the individuals we will meet.
“And the Lord said, ‘You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’” Jonah 4:10-11
