By the Grace of Jonah

Originally published July 22, 2013

I needed smacked up side the head.

Recently, I received an email from my friend to whom I had lamented about some recent issues. These problems were on-going and long-going. I was tired of it! She ended her email with “Spend some time with Jesus.” I only had five minutes that morning before leaving for the day. But I thought I’ll see what God can do with five minutes. I grabbed my Bible and headed to my porch swing.

This was one of those not-highly-recommended sort of Bible reading procedures: I let the Bible fall open wherever. Jonah Two. Really? That was the best God could do this morning?

But I started reading. Scene Two here in Jonah, Jonah is already in the belly of the fish. And he is praying, “In my distress I called to the Lord…”

Oh Jonah, I know what you mean. I haven’t been inside of a fish but I know about distress.  Then as Jonah outlined how everything was washing over him, I thought Ditto for me.

But a verse later it happened – the smack up side the head.  And not with seaweed – with Jonah’s next statement. In verse eight he says, “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”

Forfeit the grace that could be mine?

I’d never thought about it like that; but that’s exactly what I felt like.

I hadn’t felt much grace lately because I had been clinging to the idol of my own knowledge, trying to find direction for life from within myself, and then wondering why nothing was changing.

God has an endless amount of grace, free to all. But it seems that those who actually experience it are those who seek it, those who ask for it. And those who aren’t out chasing all the other “idols” in an attempt to find a lasting strength outside of the providence of  God.

Then in verse nine, Jonah declared, “But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good” (Jonah 2:9).

Then I realized, it‘s hard to catch grace on the run.

I need to sacrifice my time, and especially my frantic searching for answers of my own, in order to seek God and receive His grace. Yeah, God can, in a quick moment, give guidance. But consistently not seeking Him – living life on the run – makes it hard to receive His grace and guidance.

Sometimes it just takes a smack upside the head.