Former Blackout Artist

“But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.” ~ Jonah 1: 3-5

I was listening to a sermon recently and the pastor said, “You will never escape God’s presence. There is no place you can go, not even if you took a rocket ship to Mars, and not be in His presence.”

Now I’ve heard people say this before. But I had never taken a serious moment to consider just how deep and profound this truth really is; that God truly is inescapable.

And so the obvious question to this spiritual truth is this: Does this reality provide you comfort? Or does it give you cause for concern?

Had we never read the story of Jonah, wouldn’t we naturally assume that every single one of the Lord’s own prophets would see His inescapability as a wonderful thing? But not Jonah. And his story, which he authored himself, reads more like a tragedy than a triumph. Yet if we are completely honest, many of us can readily admit to struggling with the same rebellious nature toward God. There are times when knowing God can seem very inconvenient.

And yet as we read further along in Jonah’s story, it’s as though God Himself is holding up a mirror and showing myself to me. Because honestly? There are days when the last thing I want to do is turn the other cheek and forgive someone who’s said or done something to hurt me. There are days when I don’t want to be patient with the elderly driver who’s going 10 mph under the speed limit on a two-lane road with no passing lane. There are days when I simply want to tell that one person who irritates me the most what I really think about them. And there are days when I want to be the Levite passing by the victim on the other side of the road instead of the Good Samaritan.

But then I pick up my Bible and start reading Jonah. And that’s when it hits me: My attitude is worse than his was! And yet God is still right where He’s always been, right by my side, putting up with my pettiness, my pride, and my self-centeredness. And He still loves and blesses me more than I could ever deserve.

There is one thing about Jonah that I respect, and that’s his honesty. Because honestly? If I wrote a story in the Bible about myself, I’d be the greatest guy you’d never want to meet.