Jonah..

Today I flipped open my Bible, and stumbled across the book of Jonah. It’s a story that I am really familiar with and so I almost turned the page. But thankfully I didn’t because I read some stuff that caused me to really think. Most people know the story, but I’ll go ahead and review it if you don’t. Jonah was one of God’s prophets and He was told by God to go to Nineveh and preach against people because of their wickedness. Well even though Jonah was one of God’s prophets, he didn’t want to go and so he disobeyed God and jumped onto a ship that was going in the opposite direction. Well God caused this HUGE storm to hit the ship and Jonah asked to get thrown overboard so the storm would cease. When he hit the water he was swallowed by a large fish and then spit up on the shore and God again commanded him to go and he went. Jonah preached to the people to repent of their sins and they did and Jonah was not happy about it! He went outside of town and watched to see what would happen next. While he was waiting this vine grew and gave him shade against the fierce heat. The next day the vine died and Jonah was furious..  

God rebuked Jonah, because Jonah was more concerned about the life of the vine then he was about the lives of more than a hundred and twenty thousand people..

That got me to thinking… Are we ever more concerned with things that are not important like how we are going to get the hottest new gadget on the market, rather than being kind to the hurting people that are right in front of us?

I mean sometimes it is hard for us to go out of the way to be kind to people who we wouldn’t necessarily hand pick as a friend, but Christ went out of His way for us – even to the point of death! I was just considering this: would I like to be remembered like Jonah was for his disobedient and selfish desires. Would you want to be remembered for that?

I know there have been times where I didn’t feel like being kind to people because I have been more concerned about my life, but that needs to change. I mean it’s not something you can just say and it happens! It takes work and courage and I want to be remembered for serving God wholeheartedly not like Jonah is remembered. I pray that you open your eyes to the situations and people that might be right in front of you, because that is my prayer! God bless you.