Going down

“And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah.  And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”- Jonah 1:17

John Ortberg continues Chapter 8 of All the Places to Go by noting that when the sailors hurled Jonah into the sea, the Lord “appointed” a great fish to swallow Jonah.  Pastor Ortberg notes that the word appointed could be translated “commissioned.”  It’s a governing word, something a king would do.  John quips that the fish is better at taking orders than Jonah!

If the main word for God in the book of Jonah is great, the main word for Jonah is down.  For an Israelite, the sea was a low as one could go- a place of great fear and terror.  In that place of death, Jonah turns to the Lord because he has nowhere else to turn.  But when Jonah prays, good things start to happen.

We don’t have to wait until we hit rock bottom to call on God.  Even if we wait until then, however, God is there.  John summarizes:

“It turns out that when human beings are going down, down, down, God is up to something great, and from God’s perspective, death and the grave are not a problem at all.  Human rebellion and stubbornness are not a problem.  God laughs at death, laughs at the grave.”

Today’s question: What Bible verses have strengthened your faith that God is up to something great when you are going down?  Please share.

New addition to Crown Jewels: “Exulting in monotony”

Tomorrow’s blog: “Lack of love”

Going down

God"s yes is louder

The sea was getting rougher and rougher.  So they asked him [Jonah], “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”  “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm.  I know it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”- Jonah 1:11-12

In Chapter 8 of All the Places to Go, John Ortberg concludes his discussion of four reasons that hold us back from saying “yes” to God’s open door.

4.  Our sense to guilt or inadequacy may hold us back.  When Jonah decides to stop running, he thinks his story is over due to his mistake.  As Pastor Ortberg states, however, “God’s yes is louder than my no.”  But Jonah’s “no” is pretty loud, for he tells the sailors to throw him overboard.

To the reader’s amazement, the sailors don’t do it.  Apparently they have more compassion on Jonah than Jonah had on the people of Nineveh.  John points out there’s an important lesson for us here:

“You have to be really careful about judging who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, who is on God’s side and who is not on God’s side.”

Before the sailors tossed Jonah overboard, they invoked Yahweh’s name three times in prayer.  The ship of Tarshish became God’s temple.  God’s story is so big, it’s also about Tarshish.  Jonah thought he’d thwart what God wanted to do.  Just as with Jonah, God is at work in our lives in ways we can’t even begin to dream of.

Today’s question: Following your vocation loss, how has God’s yes been louder than your no?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Going down”

God"s yes is louder

Pay attention

Today John Ortberg discusses the third reason that holds us back from saying “yes” to God’s open doors.

3.  Blindness to the door in front of us holds us back.  As Jonah’s boat sails out to sea, another door will open for him, although that door is heavily disguised.  When a great storm arises that threatens to break up the ship, the professional sailors panic and throw their potential for great wealth into the sea.  The sailors each pray to their own gods.

Meanwhile, Jonah misses this great open door because he’s sleeping in the bottom of the boat.  Pastor Ortberg notes how ironic it is that a pagan, Gentile ship captain is calling Jonah to pray, but Jonah is doing what pagans do- sleeping during prayer time.

Now, the sailors already know that Jonah is running from the Lord, but they assume Jonah is talking about a tribal god of Israel.  Jonah tells them there is one great God- Yahweh.  It is Jonah’s failure that brings the Gentile sailors to faith.  Similarly, when Charles Colson was disgraced and sent to prison, doors to ministry were opened to him that never opened in the White House.  John concludes:

“How many open doors are all around me- someone feels alone, someone waits to be inspired, someone is aching with rejection, someone is racked with guilt- just waiting for me to pay attention.

Today’s question: How have you learned to pay attention to God’s open doors?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “God’s yes is louder”

Pay attention

Ships of Tarshish

“After paying the fare, he [Jonah] went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.”- Jonah 1:3

“Sometimes it’s hard for a prophet and a profit to coexist.”- John Ortberg

Today John Ortberg discusses the second reason that holds us back from saying “yes” to God.

2.  Having other options holds us back.  Pastor Ortberg notes that it’s a big deal that Jonah paid the fare.  Normally, bartering was used in the ancient world and money was tremendously scarce.  Money gave Jonah mobility and options.  Money made it easier for Jonah to think he could run away from God, because he had options.

Options are problematic for us as well.  John recalls that when he was in seventh grade, he had the option to befriend a girl in his class that no one sat next to at lunch or chose for their team.  Although John’s social status wasn’t as low as the girl’s, he ran to Tarshish, unwilling to sacrifice what little social status he had.

In Jonah’s day, Tarshish was a city of great wealth and a pioneer in trade.  “Ships of Tarshish” became a symbol of wealth, self-sufficiency, and greed- a delusion of security.  Jonah thought he was running to safety, but it really wasn’t safe at all.  John comments:

“Maybe the only safe place is to be in the will of God for your life, even if it means choosing the door to Nineveh, that scary place you don’t want to go.”

Today’s question: When has having other options been problematic for you?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Pay attention”

Ships of Tarshish

The Jonah complex

“I am very brave generally, but today I have a headache.”-Tweedledum, Through the Looking Glass

“Be strong and courageous . . . for the Lord your God will be with you.”- Joshua 1:9

In Chapter 8 (“The Jonah complex”) of All the Places to Go, John Ortberg notes that we long for open doors, yet resist going through them.  Abraham Maslow called this perplexing tendency “the Jonah complex.”  While we admire people who give a wholehearted yes to God’s call on their lives, such people also make us uneasy, anxious, and confused.

Greg Levoy refers to Jonah as “the patron saint of refused callings.”  In Jonah’s story we see all our evasions of God’s calling reflected back to us.  Pastor Ortberg discusses four reasons why we’re tempted to hold back.  The first reason is presented today.

1.  Fear holds us back.  Nineveh was hated so much that the prophet Nahum referred to the city as “the city of blood.”  Nineveh was hated not just for cruelty, but for endless cruelty (Nahum 3:19).  Unlike Nahum, who made his proclamation while safely in Israel, God sent Jonah to speak to the Ninevites face-to-face.  Jonah not only didn’t go through God’s open door, he ran the other way, implicitly in fear.  John comments:

“Sometimes open doors are not fun.  Sometimes they’re not safe.  Always they’re about something greater than our own benefit.”

Avoidance never overcomes fear.  The antidote to fear is God’s presence.

Today’s question: Have you experienced “the Jonah complex” when faced with an open door?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Ships of Tarshish”

 

 

The Jonah complex

My door response style

“God doesn’t demand perfect decisions, just perfectly submitted ones.”- Lysa TerKeurst

“Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”- Ephesians 4:5

John Ortberg complete his discussion of ways recognizing and going through open doors reveals and requires us to face the truth about ourselves in Chapter 7 of All the Places to Go.

3.  What is my door response style?  Pastor Ortberg states that our response tendencies to open doors fall into two broad categories- impulsives and resisters.  Both styles have strengths and weaknesses.

Impulsives

a.  love open doors

b.  tend to jump through open doors without thinking ahead or counting the cost

c.  great need is for discernment

d.  patron saint is Peter

e.  will want to lean into wisdom

Resisters

a.  tend to focus on danger, risk, and inadequacy

b.  tend to shrink back

c.  great need is for courage

d.  prominent resister is Gideon

e.  need most what they least want- another challenge

4.  What do I really value?  John emphasizes that we’ll never know the truth about ourselves if we don’t have some people close to us who love us and are courageous.  They must be willing to face pain in our relationship in order to challenge us to grow.  John summarizes:

“God calls us to the adventure of the open door.  We are to go through these doors for the sake of others.  On the other side, we’ll discover the hard truth about ourselves, and that truth is not often flattering. . . . When we go, we find we’re not just entering new territory.  We’re becoming new people.”

Today’s question: What is your door response style?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The Jonah complex”

My door response style

Till the sky spills over

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”- Colossians 2:6-7

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”- G. K. Chesterton

“The remedy is in the retina.”- Ann Voskamp

I have yet to attend one of my Luther South (Chicago) Class of 1969 reunions.  However, when I received advance word that South would be celebrating its 50th Anniversary on an August weekend in 2001, culminating with a Sunday service of praise and thanksgiving in the school gym, I dropped everything to contact them.  I wanted to express my gratitude through serving as the organist for the worship experience.

The sky spills over with gratitude as I reflect on South’s blessings to me:

a.  a strong college prep curriculum with outstanding electives that provided a smooth transition to Concordia- River Forest

b.  extra-curricular opportunities: drama club, musicals, school newspaper (mailing editor, sportswriter)

c.  opportunities to minister in worship; as senior accompanist for the A Cappella Choir and assistant chapel organist

This is not to say that high school was a cakewalk.  Socially, it was a difficult and awkward time.  For an unhealthy amount of time, I chose to ruminate on those social issues rather than focus on the greater blessings with gratitude.  The personal slights I felt infringed on my perceived right to happiness and obstructed my vision.  C. S. Lewis once commented on thinking about the world in God in the Dock:

“If you think of this world as a place intended simply for your happiness, you find it quite intolerable; think of it as a  place for training and correction and it’s not so bad.”

Joy is hiding in gratitude.  That’s why G. K. Chesterton describes joy as “the gigantic secret of the Christian.”  As Ann Voskamp points out, we can begin with one act of thanksgiving  for the seemingly insignificant, especially when things go wrong with us, and unlock the mystery of joy:

“When we lay the soil of our hard lives open to the rain of grace and let joy penetrate our cracked and dry places, let joy soak into our broken skin and deep crevices, life grows. . . . The clouds open when we mouth thanks.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT2k5dQNf7U

 

Till the sky spills over