Me and Jonah - Runaways

I kind of wish that I didn’t identify with Jonah so easily. I’m thinking that is probably one of my many unfortunate flaws. This week as I did the Bible study homework, I am afraid that I realized that I just might understand Jonah’s thinking. He was apparently laboring under the impression that if he removed himself as far as he possibly could from where God wanted him to be that he would somehow automatically be excused from the task God had planned for him. Preach to those folks in Ninevah? Uh. . . no. . . I can’t. It’s just that I’m a couple thousand miles away over here in Tarshish. Maybe there’s someone else who could do it. See, I’m not even there! Nice try, Jonah, but it doesn’t work that way. I should know. I’ve done plenty of my own running away. How about you? Nope, can’t teach that Sunday school class, lead those GAs, visit those prospects, keep the nursery. I’m pretty busy waaaaay over here. You know – doing stuff. Important stuff.

I’ve already shared Matthew’s version of Jonah’s story from his four-year-old point of view. You should know that he was intrigued with the whole story for quite a while. One day, he asked, “How could Jonah get eaten by a fish but not die?” While I was thinking up my answer, Matthew answered his own question.  He said, “Oh, I know. The fish just didn’t chew.” Of course. Who knew? So I’ve learned something else from Jonah and his escapades. In spite of our disobedience, we don’t get chewed up – but we do get to be miserable while we figure out that it would be much better to do what God says. One thing I do know – the lessons we need to learn will continue until we learn them! Especially if we are waiting to get vomited up by a fish.

This Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted Bible study is really, really good. It makes me want to study even beyond what is in the lesson. And when I was doing that, guess what I found out. Jonah is the only “minor prophet” (if there is any such thing) who was ever mentioned by Jesus. If you want to look it up – go to Matthew 12, Matthew 16, and Luke 11. It is there. I checked. Come join us and study about Jonah. Learn from his mistakes. Learn from what he did right. Apply it to your life.