The Whale and Me

Jonah and I have a lot in common.


We can both sleep through anything, even a big storm.

We both like to swim.

We both like plants that provide shade.

We also both disobey God and sometimes, for special occasions, run the opposite way.

Ninevah was a wicked place. So wicked, that God wanted Jonah to go and proclaim that Ninevah was headed for destruction. Jonah put on his shoes, grabbed his keys and promptly went to Tarshish, a complete 180 degrees from Ninevah! Oh, Jonah…

Jonah boards the boat headed for Tarshish and a huge storm comes up. The experienced sailors feared for their lives and they cast lots to see who was to blame for this punishing storm. Jonah’s name came up. But, where was Jonah? He was fast asleep in the boat. The sailors wake him and Jonah tells them to throw him overboard and the storm will stop. They reluctantly obey and the storm stops! Jonah is then swallowed by a huge fish and sits in it’s belly for 3 days, a sort of “time out” if you will. Here, he cries out to God saying he will obey and God answers. The fish spits Jonah out onto dry land and Jonah finally heads towards Ninevah.

This first part of the story really resonates with the human condition. We turn away from God and ignore Him more often than we would like to admit. We are like little children who plug their ears and yell “la la la la, I can’t hear you!” when their parents tell them to do their chores.

As this scripture has been sinking into my brain and soul for the past few days, I started thinking, how many times have I turned and gone the complete opposite direction than what God wanted? I’ve done this more times than I’d like to admit, both physically and spiritually. One night I was planning on meeting some friends downtown. I headed down there but couldn’t get a hold of them. So, God said, just go to the beach and we’ll spend some time together. I started towards the beach, but got a text from my friend. After talking, I decided to turn around and go back downtown. A complete 180 from where I was going with God! I totally regretted it that night because it robbed me of time with God and hurt my witness, conscience and obedience.
Examine your life to see where you do a 180 and run. Do you run towards sin instead of away? Do you put yourself in situations that you think you can handle, but deep down you know you can’t? or do you turn your car around and leave the beach and head downtown?

Let’s ask God for strength and courage to obey the first time he asks us, no matter how ridiculous or hard that task may be!