What I learned from Jonah (more than eat your veggies)

Yesterday was part four of a four-part study of Jonah. When the pastor mentioned this, I breathed a sigh of relief. Almost done with Jonah. Jonah just seems so....Sunday School. Yes, he disobeyed God, yes he was swallowed by the big fish, yes God heard his prayer, had the fish chuck him up, and yes, Jonah went and did the thing he should have done in the first place. Yawn.

Really. At first (and second, and third) glance, Jonah almost seems like your classic do-what-you're-told-or-else story. If I didn't believe that the Bible is God's Word (and I do), I might think Jonah's story was designed to get small children to eat their vegetables. Truthfully, I like vegetables, so instead of really listening yesterday, I made my grocery list. Oh, I kept one ear dutifully in the game. I even looked up occasionally, but I was really one big inner yawn.

And then. Pastor got me with the punchline. What he said made me sit straight up, engage both ears, and glance furtively at my husband's notes to be sure I was hearing what I heard. In hindsight, I'll bet he spent four weeks purposely leading up to this point.

The verses (I'll let you read them, I chose the NLT) speak of a whiny, petulant Jonah. A Jonah who, even after having been given the grace of salvation (from the great fish), cannot extend that same grace to the Ninevites. The Ninevites were such a hateful, horrible, violent people that Jonah said he would rather die himself than to see them spared. These people, from the capital of the Assyrian Empire, were known for their heinous torture of captives, and Jonah very likely had known friends, neighbors, loved-ones and even family who had met this gruesome fate. He could not see a single reason for God to spare such an enemy of His people.

And yet.

God wanted to. He wanted not just to spare them, but to save them. He wanted Jonah to go; He wanted to give them a chance to repent, to change their ways, to turn back to God. God was so sweetly loving these awful people that he even included their animals as a reason to spare them. God didn't want to so much as kill the animals in Ninevah.

That was the first punch. Get ready for the 'ol one-two.

Whose Jonah are you? Who is it that has wronged you, or those you love? Who is it that you are so sure that God should wipe off the face of the planet? Who is it that does not deserve the same grace He has so sweetly extended to you?

Yeah. I could name a name or two myself. There are those who have caused so much pain in my life or the lives of those I love that I have been

Just.Certain.

that God could not, should not love them.

The question is this:

Who am I, the girl to whom so very much grace has been given, to decide where and to whom God should and should not extend that same grace?

And the question is this:

Who are you?