From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.
‭‭Jonah‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If God is anywhere, he’s everywhere.

He shows up in the most unlikely places and situations. Our darkest hours, our deepest grief, our most desperate circumstances, nowhere is off limits.

But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’

When he shows up, so must we, with a message of recognition and hope for his end game to manifest for us in a cloud of glory.

And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
‭‭Jonah‬ ‭2‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If God is anywhere, he’s everywhere. From deep inside a big fish to the tiniest and most intimate place of your heart, waiting for you to seek him.

You can run but you cannot hide.

Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 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.
‭‭Jonah‬ ‭1‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Your choices affect those around you.

The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?
‭‭Jonah‬ ‭1‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

At some point, taking responsibility is necessary.

Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.
‭‭Jonah‬ ‭1‬:‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Don’t be surprised at the great lengths God may take to get you on board with his agenda

Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
‭‭Jonah‬ ‭1‬:‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…stay tuned for the continuation of Jonah & The Big Fish Hideaway.

It had been a few months since our last Sunday morning chat on the church sidewalk.

Tall with a big build, Gil was one of my more awkward acquaintances but faithful to a fault in his routine.

After service I always left to spend the day with my young grandsons and he was always off to the nursing home to visit his ailing wife of half a century.

When he failed to show up for a few weeks, I asked if anyone had seen him. I didn’t have his number and had never bothered to get his last name.

He showed up this past Wednesday night, walking to the grocery store for some orange juice resembling nothing of the man he once had been.

I went out to greet him. He’d shriveled down to a frail frame that seemed to wear skin and bones like an oversized tshirt three times larger than necessary.

Gil has bladder cancer.

His wife had passed in March at the facility, his car had been in the shop for months, too expensive to repair, and the cancer diagnosis was only slightly more recent, obviously hungrily having eaten away at the once impressive presence of a man.

I invited him in for a meal with our recovery group on his return trip from the store and he accepted. He’d not had as much a human conversation with anyone since his wife’s death and seemingly beamed at the invite.

I got his number and his last name this time and along with hopes he’d indeed return for dinner and a chat was a wish he wasn’t destined to die alone soon in his tiny apartment like so many other widowers I’ve known.

I’m not sure what became of him after his orange juice trip but I will be calling him today to assure him he’s not alone in this world anymore.

All the lonely people.
Where do they all belong
if not in the company of friends.

The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.
‭‭Obadiah‬ ‭1‬:‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The global landscape is changing.

Evil nations will soon face the day of their own reckoning and destruction.

The verse from Obadiah 1:15 emphasizes the idea of divine justice and accountability when the actions people or nations have taken will ultimately come back to haunt them.

In more colorful terms,
karma’s a bitch.

God’s judgment will reflect the deeds of individuals or nations.

The tides will turn and it will be solely because God moves against the evils of humanity.

And yet, the unschooled masses will reach for the popcorn instead of the bread of life.

It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him.
‭‭Amos‬ ‭5‬:‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We’ve all had days like this.

Out of the frying pan into the fire.

We cry out to God for relief and respite from our circumstances but find no solutions, only more suffering.

Step back, take in the bigger picture, and you may see that you survived every time.

The promise is not that you won’t have bad days, but that survival skills are an essential part of the Christian life.

Deciding to follow Christ is signing on to a team of fighters for a faith that literally saves lives. What team with a mission like that doesn’t need strength and resilience training?

At least ten of Jesus’ disciples were martyred for their faith.

Read Luke 14:25-33.

Jesus emphasizes that following Him requires a serious commitment, involving sacrifice and willingness to prioritize Him above all else.

That is the kind of faith Jesus requires of us.

Surviving some bad days is part of the journey that tests our faith.

Nobody forces us to follow Jesus, but when you fall in love…

He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord God Almighty is his name.
‭‭Amos‬ ‭4‬:‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Fully capturing the creative, formative and revelatory nature of God is difficult at best.

Making landscapes, the day and night, winds and meteorological events, and his personal investment in communicating to his people is a good start though.

I can only imagine that Amos had to select from so many options to communicate his point, and these were the attributes that made the cut.

You rarely hear today’s followers describe God in such glorious and expansive ways but rather we hear of God in more personal and intimate descriptions and miss sharing his glorious creative nature.

The very god who saved your soul at the perfect time and place in history is the very god who created all history itself.

Let that sink in.

This is what the Lord says to Israel: “Seek me and live;
‭‭Amos‬ ‭5‬:‭4‬ ‭NIV‬‬