Something's Fishy

Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once!  The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him. Jonah 1:15-16 (NLT)

God is so funny. Here is Jonah, a prophet, called to speak for God. God gives him an assignment and Jonah decides he does not want this one. So he goes in the opposite direction. He literally walked away. His defiance is really pretty remarkable when you think about it. But God does not let him go. God follows him….chases him really.

Jonah boards a ship and trying to forget what he’s done, trying to feel better, he takes a nap. While we may be surprised, we each have our ways of ignoring what God is telling us to do. Napping, social media, TV, food, shopping, working….the list is very long. Maybe because he couldn’t look at Facebook Jonah decides to nap.

In the meantime, God decides he is going to get Jonah’s attention and he sends a huge storm. Funny thing is Jonah sleeps right through it. The storm however, is not lost on the other people on the ship. They start praying, rowing, throwing cargo overboard and questioning. They start asking what they had done to cause this. Everyone but Jonah who is still asleep!

They wake him up and ask why he isn’t praying. Jonah isn’t praying because he knows the answer already. We do that too don’t we? God makes a request. We don’t do it for some reason. We understand that we’ve done something wrong and so we stop praying. Humans.

Jonah begins to realize this is futile so he tells them to throw him over and the problem will go away. They tried to fix it themselves but couldn’t so they threw Jonah into the abyss. Storm stopped. The ocean became calm and their lives were spared.

The crew bowed and worshiped. They offered sacrifices to this new God they had just experienced and they vowed to serve him.

And here is what I learned from this story. God wants us to obey but even when we don’t, even when we mess up and go our own way, His glory will be revealed. He will still do what he wants to do. And what does He want to do more than anything? Show His children (ALL OF US) who He is. He wants to get our attention. He wants to draw us into a close relationship with Him and He will use any means to do it. Including our mistakes.

Interestingly, God throughout this story continued to lead Jonah, work with Jonah and teach Jonah. Even though Jonah was being stubborn and really kind of belligerent, God did not give up on him. It’s good to know that He doesn’t give up on us either. Personally, I think I’ll try to obey because God has a million ways to bring His plan about. I’d prefer not to end up in the belly of a fish!

How To Come Up With A Plan

“Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die.  But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat—you and your wife and your sons and their wives.  Bring a pair of every kind of animal—a male and a female—into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood.  Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive.  And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals.” Genesis 6:17-21 (NLT)

My natural bend is to be a task oriented person (God is working with me on this.) So I look at today’s text and see a list of things to do.

Build the boat.
Gather all the animals.
Get them into the boat.
Bring your family.
Gather food for the animals and your family.

Each one of those has a million subtasks. Like for example, where do you get the materials to build the boat? How are you going to clean up after the animals? How are you going to keep the food from going bad?

Do you think when God said to Noah “This is my plan for you” Noah’s eyes glazed over and he got stuck? Being the way I am, I would have started making lists. Endless lists of what had to be done and when. I would have become so focused on the lists that I’d forget to look at God.

Another thing I would probably do is ask God to lay out exactly when I needed to have everything done. I would want to know when the flood was going to start. I probably would have had endless questions.

But, as I ponder the story, God worked with Noah for around 100 years to get the job done (give or take depending on the calculations you use.) He gave him the information he needed when he needed it. For example, when the boat was ready, God said “Seven days from now I will send the rain.” He didn’t tell him way in advance. At the end of the flood, God told Noah when he was to come out of the boat. He didn’t leave a lot of room for guessing.

A couple of things pop into my mind when I read this story. First, God chooses us for his plan and he gives us the ability to do what he asks. There were so many parts of this job that Noah had never done. Heck, they’d never even seen rain before! But God walked him through it, step by step. Next, God’s timing and his communication about that timing is perfect.

He told Noah what Noah needed to know when he needed to know it. Every part was covered even down to the part about taking seven of the clean animals so at the end Noah could offer a sacrifice without killing off a species.

What was Noah’s role? To listen for God’s direction and do what God said when he said it. Today, as you look at the list of things you have to get accomplished, maybe instead of getting overwhelmed you could give it to God and ask for his plan. Maybe if we make his plan our plan we’d do amazing things for him like build an ark or spread his kingdom to the corners of the world. What do you think?

Until Then.....

Then Jesus wept. John 11:35 (NLT)

As I stood there in the middle of the the second Memorial Service in a month, I felt numb.  I watched the people cry around me and I didn't respond much.  My brain was telling me that Jesus will come again and this would all go away. I kept thinking about the hope that the cross brings to us and how important it is to know that during this time. It helped me hold on.

Then, after the service was over, after the lunch, on the long drive home, I sobbed. I sobbed and sobbed because of the pain I knew everyone was going through. I sobbed because children shouldn't have to bury their 'too young to die' mother. I sobbed because mothers shouldn't have to bury their daughters and husband their wives way before it was time. And I sobbed for my loss as well.

After the sobbing I pondered the fact that we were not created for this.  We were created to live forever and because of sin, we don't. And I longed for the day when Jesus will come so there will be no more tears. And I was comforted with the fact that Jesus wept when Lazarus died. Jesus also knew that this was not what we were supposed to be doing. He knew that there is a better life ahead and that he would hold the key to that life. Yet he wept anyway. He wept because he could feel the pain around him and his tender heart broke.

As we drove home, I was comforted with the fact that my Lord and Savior also felt this pain and expressed it. I was also comforted with the knowledge that he will come again and take us home to a place where we won't have to say good-bye to people we love ever again.

Until then, J-9, until then.....