Hiding below deck...

Who teaches us tonight? Jonah...that's who. You might remember the story...Jonah and the whale. God sends Jonah to the city of Nineveh to preach repentance and God's coming punishment...Jonah is not interested...heads to the dock and buys a one-way ticket for Tarshish. Coincidentally, Tarshish is in the opposite direction from Nineveh. If I might observe something here...Jonah doesn't just say 'no' to God's call, but 'hell no, I won't go!' But in the words of Greg Levoy, in his recounting of the story, God is not amused by Jonah's petulant refusal to obey, and sends a great storm upon the ship that Jonah has boarded for his trip to Tarshish...meanwhile, Jonah is sleeping in the bottom of the boat.

Now there's a metaphor for you, sleeping in the bottom of the boat. How many of us are sleeping in the bottom of the boat? Or simply sleeping? I'm sure it is not a coincidence that when I am most overwhelmed by the pressures of life, I sleep...alot...and then again, I don't sleep...at the normally appointed hours of the day. I am sleepless at night, and prone to long bouts of sleeping during the day. I find that I have a tremendous capacity to sleepwalk through an entire day of work, so able am I to disengage my mind and heart from daily life when I do not want to face the things that trouble me.

Back in the boat with Jonah, the captain and crew are in full panic mode, and Jonah eventually confesses that it is he who has brought the storm upon them. In desperation for their lives, the crew tosses Jonah overboard, where he is swallowed by a great fish (whale?). Said whale has been appointed by God as a courier for the wayward preacher, and after spending 3 days in fish-tivity, Jonah is spit upon the beach, in Nineveh.

Jonah goes on to preach God's message...and the people of Nineveh receive it and repent...all is well. Is this happy ending the primary lesson that we need to learn from Jonah? When exactly can we expect God to intervene in the detail of our lives to courier us to the exact place where He would have us go? I find this to be a vexing question, because the ability to discern such explicit intervention requires a level of attentiveness that doesn't usually characterize my days.

I will say this -- if God's intervention is so personalized as to find Jonah asleep in the bottom of a boat at sea, surely he can find you and me and get us to the place where we need to be. I'll commit to keep at least one eye open to watch for my whale...