I ‘m going to rely on the fact that I’m preaching on Jonah for the second week tomorrow and lean on my interaction with these scriptures to provide some food for thought.
Never gave it much thought until tonight but Jonah and I actually have some things in common: Point # 1: he was the son of a Samaritan prophet, I’m the son of a preacher man,. Point #2 He got called, I got called. Point # 3 He ran, I ran. I’m sure we probably had similar thoughts as we ran, “No Way Jose! I grew up around that stuff and I DO NOT want to go there!” Been there; done that.
Now I didn’t end up in the belly of a big fish but I do remember the defining moment of surrender for me. I was driving to Columbus to work one day all in a huff about these nagging people who had been telling me I should become a minister, I should go to seminary, I should do this do that . . . And then suddenly I realized, “Hey, I’m not arguing with these people. They aren’t even here in the truck with me. I’m all by myself in this truck, so why should it even be bothering me? . . . . . . . . .Oops. I’m not alone,. . . . am I? I found myself boxed in the cab of a pick up truck with an overwhelming presence of God right there with me.
Well I knew what the outcome was gonna be then and there but I still insisted on playing a couple of “Gideon” cards after that (you know, “God if its really you then I’ll do this and if it’s you then you’ll do that. . . .”). Not too surprising to anybody but me, it all played out in God’s favor . And the rest is history
So why do we even think we can run from God?
Psalm 139 says:
1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
That’s pretty convincing testimony: that you can run but you can’t hide. David wrote these words a considerable amount of time before Jonah was even born. I know it wasn’t in the Berean Christian book stores yet, but don’t you think Jonah would have at least heard this through oral tradition before he bought his ticket to Tarshish? I mean with that kind of info starring you in the face how could you even think of running from God?
Wait, I should criticize Jonah? I sure had a lot more available to me than he did to get the point across before I decided to run. Aha! point #3: We were both in denial! “If we just ignore God’s call it will go away!” NOT! God is everywhere and knows everything. (And I paid $28,000 dollars to learn the upscale description of that: omnipresent and omniscient).
Lesson learned: You can not play hide and go seek from God!
I know more people who have learned this lesson from their own experience of running than not. This is definitely one of those things that in our human stubbornness each one of us is too bullheaded to take the lesson from someone else’s experience. We insist on running first, then listening to someone else’s story after we’ve surrendered.
But I guess that‘s not such a bad thing in the end. The “running” experience draws each one of us closer and more intimate to Jesus by the time we’re finished. Plus by hearing other people’s “Jonah run” it affirms that Jesus is the author of each of our own epic stories. Wow!
Lord, thanks for being kinder to me in my answer to your call than you were to Jonah
Thank you for not sending a storm at the time.
Thank you for not sending me a big fish to swallowed me up
Thank you for being patient with me while I came to my senses about running from you. Amen
Stay close to Jesus!
REG
No comments:
Post a Comment