Do Overs

This summer we found ourselves in the beautiful Yellowstone National Park fishing with our grandkids. What a sight to see these four lined up on the beach, filled with excitement of catching the big one! And soon enough, I heard a squeal at which I turned to see one of the younger ones cranking as fast and hard as he could to pull up his fish. Now this fish wasn't all that large, but to him, you would have thought he just landed the whale that swallowed Jonah!

As I was reading this morning in the book of Jonah, I remembered the above story and I began thinking about the many, many lessons that are found in chapter one, alone! Now, I realize that there are many theologians who would argue whether in fact a big fish could have actually swallowed a human. But, as for me . . . I believe my big Creator God could see to it, that a whale could swallow a disobedient man such as Jonah. In fact, recent history has more than one story of sailors being swallowed by whales, and live to tell the tale! Albeit, I'm not making that case today.

I did however find a great deal of interest in three verses. The first is found in Jonah 1:5 that says "Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep." As a pastor I have witnessed what I call the "Jonah Syndrome" in more lives than I can count. Meaning those walking in disobedience to God seem to begin a process of falling asleep. They drop out of the ministries of the church, they become less and less engaged in their own lives, and the lives of others around them; and they become so complacent that their answer to life is just to go below and fall asleep. This sleep isn't just any kind of sleep. Look at the story! There is this terrible storm; a storm of epic proportions, so much so that the sailors thought they were going to die. They thought that the ship would over-turn any moment, and they went to work. But, where was Jonah? He wasn't helping to save the day. He was not engaged in being a part of the solution, instead he remained willfully a part of the problem, and slept through it all. He turned a deaf ear to the storm and allowed the effects of the storm to rock him into APATHY!!

The next thing I observed, was found in verse 12 "He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you." Those walking in disobedience always make statements like "I'm not hurting any one else." That is simply not true! Their actions hurt a lot of innocent victims; their apathy affects the unsuspecting; their running causes pain for others, whether guilty or not. The wake of destruction is much larger than the guilty party ever realizes!

BUT . . . I find peace in reading the last verse of this chapter. Jonah 1:17 which says "And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights." WOW! How incredible to know that even when we are disobedient; even when we are running from God; even when we are just plain asleep in our sin, God has already made provision for that very moment of repentence. The second Jonah admitted that he was the problem, God provided a big fish to swim by at just the right moment; gobbling Jonah up as a means of protecting him from his watery grave. Ok, so you're thinking . . . "yeah, right! You call being thrown over-board; swallowed by a whale; barfed up on the beach . . . provision?" YES! I mean, personally I think anything short of death is an opportunity for a do-over. Jonah then had the opportunity to turn his life around, make the right decision and because of that, in his obedience, thousands came to know the Lord! Now isn't that a tremendous thought! I love "do-over" stories . . . and this is one of the best!