Monday, July 28, 2014

Jonah, Humility, and Unexpected Endings

Since I am working with the children on a Jonah play for this Sunday, I have spent some time in those four chapters recently. There is so much in that story: disobedience, second chances, anger, reluctantly following God's will. But this time around I am struck by the ending.

The book ends with Jonah pouting under a withered tree because things didn’t turn out the way he wanted them to, the way he hoped they would, the way he thought they would. After he was finally faithful to what God was calling him to do, the final result was not what he had anticipated. Life didn’t turn out the way he wanted it to.

Does it ever? Throughout our personal lives, our family lives, and our church lives, there are twists and turns we never expect. Unexpected outcomes. Surprising results that weren’t on the horizon when we started. We may be completely faithful in following God and what God wants us to do and end up in a completely different place than we thought we would be.

Why? Because God’s ways are not our ways. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. God has a plan that we know very little about. God sees the big picture while we only see the immediate “here and now.” Humility is an essential ingredient in our spiritual lives. While we may want something to end a certain way or like to see a certain result, it may not always turn out like that. We must be humble enough to submit to God’s will, to admit we don’t see the big picture, to accept what is and what will be even if we don’t understand.

We don’t know what the future holds for our own lives, for the people we love, for our church, for our world. It may be completely different than what we want or expect. But God IS good all the time, even when we are thrown those curve balls.


Jonah is a wonderful story with a powerful message. The last message is the most powerful of all. How do you respond when life doesn’t go your way, when God’s will is not your will? The hope, the prayer is that Jonah didn’t pout for too long under that sapling. Before too long, perhaps he came to his senses and realized that God’s plans are much greater than anything we could ask or imagine. Whether we understand it at the time or not, may we each have a sense of humility as we travel down life’s road and accept God’s will whatever it may be. Alleluia. Amen.