Jonah

Jonah has been coming up quite a lot in my life the last few months. In July I finally went back to my calling of serving in my church's high school group as a leader at the annual Party at Pedros. That weekend is always an amazing experience, as proven by my time there in high school as a camper, and my 3 different occasions to be a leader. That trip itself is ground for an entire blog post, so I will say only that the story our speaker choose happened to be that of Jonah. Then 3 weeks ago the high school pastor began a series on Jonah. And last night I sat in the main church service and listen to a man who i've had the utmost respect for since I met him my freshman year of high school give an very poignant sermon on Jonah. It just so happens that this man is the high school pastor at my church and was my small group leader for about 3 years of my high school experience. Funny, this was the third time i'd encountered Jonah with (if memory serves, 3 weeks in between each encounter) and all of them were with Jay (pastor). Now I won't claim to have paid perfect attention at the camp's sermons (I fell asleep during the first night's due to having to take some Nyquil) and maybe not even the second time during the high school service (I didn't fall asleep, but I was somewhat distracted by checking to see that the kids were respectfully paying attention) but I would be remiss to have missed that there was obviously something important God wanted to teach me through Jonah's tale.

Jonah's time in the giant fish was a prophetic instance which foreshadowed the 3 days and 3 nights Jesus would spend in his tomb. I have known that for quite a while, so once I started noticing all the triplets surrounding this sermon and my life for the past few months (I understand if you think I am stretching the significance of the number 3, but after all, this is about how God spoke to me and I think it was quite purposeful on his part. I tend to pay more attention to silly things like this.) So, this in mind, I sat forward in my seat and began to listen to what God was trying to tell me. The following is what I got:

"I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars [closed] behind me forever; Yet you have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God.When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD. And my prayer went [up] to You, into Your Holy Temple" Jonah 2:7

I have so much I have typed out and tried to say about his passage, but it keeps coming out wrong so I am going to start where I ended and try to explain that. Sometimes it is the case that God does not seek to solve our problems, but seeks to use our problems to solve us. Jonah's time in the belly of the whale allowed him to realize his err in fleeing from God and had Jonah not been spit up it would have been sufficient that his time in the whale had returned him to a path of righteousness and rightness with God. Here's the deal, I think that this was God giving me a reminder that even when life is going horribly, you are struggling with things you cannot understand the meaning for, you are ready to give up, He is there. He wants us to learn from our struggles and grow from them. Learn about ourselves, and about Him. Become wiser and more patient, compassionate and more understanding, loving and more giving. Jonah's psalm is similar to that of David's in Psalm 22. Even in the darkest hour the LORD is a great God and his love is always apparent.

I am struggling to find a job right now, I have been for almost 3 months. I haven't given up hope yet. I don't even feel angry at God or blame Him that I somehow being smitten by Him. So in the end I don't really know if this journey with Jonah has been just a loving reminder that I am doing well to remember to still praise Him for the great things I'm experiencing while I struggle with a job search (and let me be perfectly honest, even dirt poor, my life is more joyous than many could hope for, and it's getting better every day), or if it is an encouragement to me for the future. Either way, this was a message from God to me, and even if it's not special for anyone else, I will cherish it. It's like putting a John Deer hat on your grandpa when he leaves your house for on Thanksgiving with his arms full of left overs. When you think about it, it's just an average moment, but sometimes, with the right circumstances, that average moment can come to mean everything.