Jonah

I can't stop thinking about Jonah.

What a dingbat.  God told him to do something.  He didn't want to do it, so he got on a boat and went to sleep.  Meanwhile all hell is breaking loose all around while he snores.  They're throwing everything overboard to lighten the load and the culprit is sound asleep.  I can just hear the captain when he found Jonah below,  

"How is it that you are sleeping?"  

Then, when it is obvious that Jonah is the dude who is causing all this calamity, they ask him this:

"From what people are you?"

And the answer just rolls off his tongue,

"I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven (really???) who made the sea and the dry land."

It's almost comical.  

You know the rest.  Jonah gets tossed into the belly of a fish (Thank goodness or the sea would have swallowed him up!) and he sits there for three days.  He prayed to God from the stomach of the fish and it vomited him up onto dry land.  Gross.

He goes to Ninevah, tells the people, God rescues them, and Jonah is none too happy about it.  His response to God's compassion makes me laugh.  (Jonah 4:2)  He hates it so much, he wants to die.  And God uses a little plant to teach him another lesson, which we never really know if he learned.

SMH (Shakin' my head.) 

Until I realize... I am Jonah.  I, all too often, don't really want to do what God is calling me to do.  I pull the covers over my head and try to ignore it.  Maybe it will go away.  And the storms rage until I submit to His will.  He calls us to do hard things.  Life is not easy and, like Jonah, even my obedience is not going to mean a happy, cheery outcome.  I am learning a life of service.  I am learning a life of obedience.  I am learning that the true joy is just being His.  
I am learning that that is enough.