Fish feel very comfortable when I'm on the water with a pole......
My in-laws live in Maine, the most beautiful state in the union bar none. I love to go there. Mostly for the people but the scenery is amazing, especially in Deer Isle, where the fam is. One thing they don't tell the tourists, especially the ones from Florida is that the water is cold. I've walked in it up to my ankles and my legs started turning blue! There are people that actually swim in it. On purpose! I did once. not on purpose. My father-in-laws boat is anchored in Sylvesters Cove and you have to row a john boat out to reach it. My brother-in-law said drop the anchor which I did....without tying it to the boat. Who knew you had to do that? And why wasn't it tied already? I may have been 'punked. Was told I had to go get it so over I went and...."I can't breath". Which is natural if you're under water but I was still above it! The water was so cold it took my breath away and as I dog paddled I wondered if I should ask to be shot with the spear gun or have them let me drown. I got the anchor, thank you very much. Like I said, the fish had no worries....
I taught kids in church this week. Jonah. He had problems with fish too. I think I read the story for the first time in 35 years. I've told the story many times but I've not read it in a long, long time. It turns out Jonah didn't have a fish problem at all. He had a Jonah problem.
I love the phrasing of Jonah 1:1 "go preach against Nineveh because their wickedness has come up before me". Can't you see God sitting at His desk with a phone to His ear (a rotary phone 'cause this was before cell phones), looking over some papers as an angel walks in and hands Him a folder. He stares at it, His lips moving as He silently reads and He says "I gotta let you go Jesus, I need to call Jonah. This city of Nineveh situation just came before Me....."
I like to fish, I just don't know how or I just don't, for some probably selfish reason, do what I know to do. Like so many things in my life, if I don't get quick results I quit . I like to go fishing with my daughter Holli. I like it because we get to spend time with each other but I just wish we caught something. I was talking to the son of one of my customers and he was telling me of his haul from a local pond. 5 bass over 5lbs. each! Jerk. We'll keep trying.....
It's amazing to me the stupid people God uses. Did Jonah REALLY think he could get on a boat and sail away from God? Adam tried to hide. He might have gotten away with it but he answered a question when God asked it. Oops. Don't think he got the hide part in hide n seek thing yet. So because of his actions Jonah brought a storm into not only his own life but the life of others and it cost them everything (they threw it overboard). Being stupid he told them HE was the problem and to throw him over. Really? Would you have said that? I'da pointed and said Frank did it....
So he get's the first submarine ride. He's swallowed by a fish which is disaster in a disaster and the end of this insanity. Here is where I read something I'd forgotten. God sent the fish. Not exactly the salvation one envisions. It doesn't say how long he was in the water, minutes, hours, who knows. Long enough to pray for God to save him(2:2). Which He did. Which brings me to the point I had no idea I was trying to make when I started typing: Sometimes God's rescues are disasters and it's only the passage of time and the gaining of perspective that we understand it was a rescue.
I've found myself in terrible places in life because of my own actions and at some point I'll repent and make nice with Dad only to find myself in a bigger hole. I guess sometimes that's His way. His salvation. What I'm supposed to do is pay attention to what He's doing or what I think He's doing and rejoice that He cares and grit my teeth and move forward with Him. It's what I'm SUPPOSED to do but often don't. Why? Because I'm dumber than a sack of hammers. But I'll not give up. Because He doesn't. I want to be like Jonah- to be able to worship my Dad in the midst of my hardship. Because He is God!
Hilarious! You sound like Rick with the cold water. The finger lakes are some of the coldest water you can find, but he jumped right in. I didn't even venture a toe.
ReplyDeleteStephen is studying Jonah, right now, too, for school, so obviously I am reading it again, so that I can make up comprehensive questions for him to write the answers to. What I noticed was that Jonah said several times that he waited until he was at the point of death, before he cried out to God. Why didn't he just pray while he was in the boat? Surely there might have been a different answer to the problem than throw me in the sea.
Dumber than a sack of hammers is a new one for me. Thanks for the laughs. However, a fool doesn't recognize that he is a fool, but you have some wisdom to recognize your errors and try to fix them.
I think that God wants us to live a happy and abundant life. I don't think that He wants us to just stumble through life blindly. He wants to have a close relationship with Him. He wants to guide us, so that we don't have so many troubles. Yes, we are going to have trials, to help us grow stronger in our faith. But our problem, I think, is that we don't look to Him when we are going through them. We are like sheep. If we would listen to His voice and follow right behind Him, life would go better for us. "He leads me beside still waters."