ThroughSample

Whatever thrusts us into a tough place, perhaps we’re being prodded to return to God’s purpose.

This isn’t about placing us on a guilt trip. It’s a gentle nudging from a caring Father that he has our best interests at heart. Just as he said to his people thousands of years ago, he also reassures us: “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”

There's an interesting angle to the story of Jonah, which takes place after his ordeal in the big fish's belly. It is clear that despite the experience, he still isn't entirely in step with what God wants from him.

The story reminds us that even after our own wilderness experience, there will still be many lessons to be learned, as God patiently teaches us and moulds us into the person he knows us to be.

Having warned the city of Nineveh and saved them from destruction, Jonah was still unable to accept that God would want to save a sinful people such as those he was sent to warn. He displayed very much the same self-righteous attitude which we see among the Pharisees and scribes later in the New Testament.

We’re so quick to judge others and to rate ourselves compared to them. Is there any other reason why social media and the tabloid press have become so popular? But then again, that’s why God’s grace is so revolutionary. It’s available to those who least deserve it – and for that we should all be especially grateful. Otherwise, we'd still be running in the opposite direction, away from him.

In the well-known story, God gives Jonah a quick lesson in grace by providing a leafy plant to shelter him, but then he sends a worm to kill it the next day. When Jonah’s anger is roused against God for his seeming indifference about his welfare, or that of the plant, he is reminded that: “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left – and also many animals?”

This encapsulates God’s love for all his people. It’s also a reminder that we’re never done learning about love. When we’ve made it through our time of challenge, we should pray that our hearts might continue to be open to guidance and prompting from God. As we consider the transition in Jonah’s life – from disobedience, to isolation, to obedience – may we too be open to God’s transformative work in our lives. It’s through being broken that we can be made whole. Through surrendering the self, that God’s glory in us can be revealed.

As Christian theologian and mystic Julian of Norwich said many hundreds of years ago: “First the fall, and then the recovery from the fall, and both are the mercy of God.”

A few thoughts to ponder:

• Has anything you have done (perhaps an act of disobedience to God) brought you to this place in the wilderness? If so, do you see anything of yourself in Jonah's story?
• Think carefully about the final quote from Julian of Norwich? What does it mean to you? How might you still experience the "mercy of God" in the recovery of your fall?