A friend and I were talking about God's workings in our lives. I was explaining to him how I didn't expect to back in the city I grew up in. I thought God had other plans for me (preferably oversees). But God put me here. And it was somehow through that conversation that we came up with the motto "Don't be a Jonah". And it has stuck. I found a whale necklace from my childhood and began wearing that as a constant remember to not be a Jonah.
Don't get me wrong; I have had many a Jonah moments and God has shown me, like He did Jonah, the error of my way. But I love our motto and I love my reminder. God sometimes calls us to places and people where we really don't want to be or be with. But guess what, it all works out for His glory. I didn't want to come back but God shows me continually that He has plans for me here. He may want me here for a year, a couple of years or the rest of my life. All I have to do is wake up each morning and determine in my mind and heart that I will serve the Lord, regardless of what or who comes that day.
All of this is easier said than done, of course, but I draw comfort from the fact that God uses us even when we don't do His will. I was reading through the book of Jonah the other day when I realized that God used Jonah even when he was on the boat fleeing from God. All of the men on the boat worshiped God after they realized that it was Jonah's God who controlled the waters and made them both storm and stop. I thought to myself "huh, God used Jonah even when he was refusing to do what God wanted him to do." Those men on the boat believed in the One True God because of Jonah's fleeing. Had he not been there, they probably never would have seen the Lord's power. It is comforting to realize that the Lord will still use me when I screw up or have my Jonah moments.
So...don't be a Jonah (but remember that God uses us even then)!
