Jonah, Jonah, Jonah

Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the story of Jonah, because his behavior has lead  me to a greater understanding of You. In Jesus' name. Amen
I enjoy the story of Jonah every time I hear it.
I like Jonah. He's dumb about the ways of God, and I am too.
But I think this is a story more about the interaction between Jonah, a devout, stubborn, and a bit arrogant prophet, and God, than about the punishment of a city. Which is a wonderful way for us, the observers and readers, to see ourselves in Jonah.
God gives Jonah specific directions, "Set out for the great city^* of Nineveh, and preach against it; for their wickedness has come before me."
We too are given specific directions by God - the ten commandants - for example - about how to live our lives.
But what does Jonah do? "...Jonah made ready to flee to Tarshish,^* away from the LORD. He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went down in it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the LORD"

And we do that too, in our daily lives, we think, "Heck no! I'm not following God's way. I'm going to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, and how I want to do it. See ya God!"
But how does one escape from God? He created the universe! He knows where all the great hiding spaces are and where humans are likely to go!

God keeps after us, even when we think He's forgotten about us, and He certainly isn't going to abandon His mission with Jonah.
"The LORD, however, hurled a great wind upon the sea, and the storm was so great that the ship was about to break up."
The sailors were afraid, of course, and started praying to their Gods. “Come, let us cast lots to discover on whose account this evil has come to us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.^d"
Uh-oh, Jonah! This isn't going to end well for you!
And where was the man who was causing all this commotion and what was he doing???
Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship, and lay there fast asleep.
Jonah did not care he might be endangering anyone else's life by his flagrant denial of doing God's will - he was taking care of himself. What storm? There was a storm?
Even the sailors know it is wrong to try and outrun God!
Now the men were seized with great fear and said to him, “How could you do such a thing!”
How often are we selfish and self-interested?
Lent is the time to examine our actions/attitudes and purge them, change them, ask for God's grace to help us with these changes.
Oh no! Jonah! There you go! Lose your balance did you?!

Jonah did say something wise, though,  and told the men,
“Pick me up and hurl me into the sea and then the sea will calm down for you. For I know that this great storm has come upon you because of me."
Jonah's conduct did cause the  sailors to pray, though, “Please, O LORD, do not let us perish for taking this man’s life; do not charge us with shedding innocent blood, for you, LORD, have accomplished what you desired.”
So that's good.

But what is this? But the LORD sent a great fish to swallow Jonah, and he remained in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.^a

3^* Out of my distress I called to the LORD,

and he answered me;

From the womb of Sheol^* I cried for help,

and you heard my voice.^b

4You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea,

and the flood enveloped me;

All your breakers and your billows

passed over me.^c

5Then I said, “I am banished from your sight!

How will I again look upon your holy temple?”^d

6The waters surged around me up to my neck;

the deep enveloped me;

seaweed wrapped around my head.^e

7I went down to the roots of the mountains;

to the land whose bars closed behind me forever,

But you brought my life up from the pit,

O LORD, my God.^f

8When I became faint,

I remembered the LORD;

My prayer came to you

in your holy temple.^g

9Those who worship worthless idols

abandon their hope for mercy.^h

10But I, with thankful voice,

will sacrifice to you;

What I have vowed I will pay:

deliverance is from the LORD.ⁱ

Jonah's prayer is understandable - he is in the belly of a whale afterall.
How often do we ask God for deliverance of problems we ourselves have created!
If only we would follow the Lord's precepts.
But pursuing God's way is not going to be easy - the important point to remember is we have God to help us!
He is the one who created The Way, and we need to allow Him to show us how to do what He wants.

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:2Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.3So Jonah set out for Nineveh, in accord with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an awesomely great city; it took three days to walk through it.

onah began his journey through the city, and when he had gone only a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown,”5the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small,^* put on sackcloth.^a

6When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.7Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh:^* “By decree of the king and his nobles, no man or beast, no cattle or sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.

8Man and beast alike must be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; they all must turn from their evil way and from the violence of their hands.9^* Who knows? God may again repent and turn from his blazing wrath, so that we will not perish.”^b10When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil!

I like this image that even the animals are in sackcloth! LOL

Then we learn why Jonah didn't want to do God's will, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I fled at first toward Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, repenting of punishment.^a

He wanted the people of Nineveh to suffer, to die! And now Jonah says he'd rather die - from his anger with God! Some prophet Jonah is - not someone you'd want to defend you in court! Why would God even bother with someone like him? Because God knows how much Jonah needs God - just like all of us! In our ignorance, we need God. We want bad things to happen to those who harm us, but that's our way, that's not God's Way...

So now, LORD, please take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”^b

4But the LORD asked, “Are you right to be angry?”^*

5Jonah then left the city for a place to the east of it, where he built himself a hut and waited^* under it in the shade, to see what would happen to the city.6Then the LORD God provided a gourd plant.^* And when it grew up over Jonah’s head, giving shade that relieved him of any discomfort, Jonah was greatly delighted with the plant.7But the next morning at dawn God provided a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.8And when the sun arose, God provided a scorching east wind; and the sun beat upon Jonah’s head till he became faint. Then he wished for death, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

9But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry over the gourd plant?” Jonah answered, “I have a right to be angry—angry enough to die.”10Then the LORD said, “You are concerned^* over the gourd plant which cost you no effort and which you did not grow; it came up in one night and in one night it perished.11And should I not be concerned over the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot know their right hand from their left, not to mention all the animals?”^*

The audacity of Jonah - the audacity of us! LOL

The translation explains this part of the scripture best:

A selfish Jonah bemoans his personal loss of a gourd plant for shade without any concern over the threat of loss of life to the Ninevites through the destruction of their city. If a solicitous God provided the plant for a prophet without the latter’s effort or merit, how much more is God disposed to show love and mercy toward all people, Jew and Gentile, when they repent of their sins and implore divine pardon. God’s care goes beyond human beings to all creation, as in Job 38.

The scripture ends with this conversation between Jonah and God, but I get the feeling the conversation between Jonah and God didn't end here. Jonah had much to learn - just like us - and God's going to need to be in constant contact with us and we with God, in order to know how to handle our lives.
We all have cell phones, are we ready to ACCEPT THE CALL from our God? I pray we are ready AND willing.

"I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world." Mother Theresa

I like Yellow

Heavenly Father,
Continue guiding us on our journey to Easter. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Do you ever wonder if someone else's mistakes are God's way of keeping you from making those same mistakes? I do.
Take the following story as an example. A colleague is telling me about a younger man she dated.
Yes, he was quite a bit younger than me. I wouldn't have dated him if he hadn't been so persistent.
I finally said yes and we dated for two years. I even met his mom.

"I Am The Highway" by Audioslave

Pearls and swine bereft of me.

 Long and weary my road has been.

Oh? And how did that go?

She gave me a really weak handshake when we were introduced.
And we had nothing to talk about, but he wanted her to meet me.
I was really vulnerable at the time - I had just gotten a divorce; I needed someone and he was there.
He's living with his first girlfriend now, in California. But he still sends me texts, Lord knows for what reasons he does that; it's annoying. 

I was lost in the cities, alone in the hills.
No sorrow or pity for leaving, I feel, yeah.

She tells me this in her Texas drawl, dreamily remembering:

He liked looking at the stars, so I bought him a nice telescope.
He sent me a picture of the telescope, showing off some of the accessories he'd  bought for it.
Why? Why would he send me a photo like that?
Do you think his gf knows he texts me? Probably not.
When he left I told him I needed a man, not a boy.

I am not your rolling wheels – I am the highway.
I am not your carpet ride – I am the sky.

He also sent me this photo of him in a Mercedes (I look at the photo; he looks like Marc Antony, complete with dark sunglasses). I guess it's his car. I mean, why would he take a photo of himself in someone else's car? I shrug my shoulders.

Is the Mercedes supposed to tell me he's grown-up now? Geez.
And then there's the texts where he tells me he remembers how I felt and how wonderful I smelled...

Friends and liars don't wait for me,

'Cause I'll get on all by myself.

I always just listen because I think she's asking these questions to herself, and she just needs a witness to her thoughts (I'm the witness, lol). 

Besides, she's already made her own conclusions, regardless of my opinion.

I put millions of miles under my heels;
And still too close to you, I feel, yeah.

But I learned from her experience.

I see how things would have gone for my young Asian muse and myself. 
I think I would have been too embarrassed to meet my crush's mom! 
His mom and me are practically the same age! YIKES!
Even so, I'm happy for the memories of my interactions with November- that's the nickname I've given him. 

I am not your blowing wind – I am the lightning.

I am not your autumn moon – I am the night… the night.

November opened my eyes to the possibility of dating someone outside of my comfort zone, which has been mostly Caucasian men.  

I've finally learned it's okay to ask God for people, places, and situations to come into my life, so here's my latest prayer of supplication to God (besides the ones I ask for on behalf of family and friends): 
God, please bring the husband You have chosen for me into my life. 
If God's "chosen one for me," happens to be Asian, all the better. :0)

This is Hu Ge; he is Korean. ;0)

"I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world." Mother Theresa