Sometimes I wonder what Jonah must have been pondering while in the belly of the fish. Did he question: Am I ever going to get out? What was so wrong about what I did? What can I do to change my situation? These seem like questions we all have asked at one time or another. I just never thought I would ask them and for so long.
Our economy is not good, and hasn’t been for a long time. With an unstable world, terrorist threats, and a multitude of other situations, these could never affect me; could they? These were my thoughts as I careened through life with nothing to touch me directly until one day the storm finally reached my tranquil life.
I had been trying to reach my husband at work all day. He was waiting to see what an impending lay-off may do to some of his co-workers while I was visiting friends. There had been rumors of a lay-off, but we were confident it would never happen to us. We had been through this process many times before, and this was just another day. How wrong we were!
He was informed that, as of that day, he no longer had a job; no insurance, and after 13 years of service, was given a measly severance package. Our comfort zone was pulled from beneath us and we were “cast into the sea” so to speak.
I have to admit, I cried for a week. Jonah was obviously a fast learner. In three days he was vomited out and on his way to Nineveh.
Two years later, we were still waiting for the fish to get sick. I kept praying, “God, what are you trying to teach us?”
Those who know my husband and I best have said that we had never really had much hardship; no life-threatening tragedies, no fires, no apparent threat to our marriage or lifestyle. Maybe God thought we needed a little excitement. So “fish bait” we became. Couldn’t He have done something a little less drastic to get our attention? I guess not. God, in all His wisdom, knew what we must learn and knew what must happen in order for us to learn it. While in the tight and uncomfortable belly of the fish, I did learn a few things:
- God had prepared us even without our knowing. A few months before, two separate attempts to borrow money for a new and/or bigger house fell through. In trying to qualify for the loan, we paid off several debts which put us in a much better financial position.
- Everything happens in God’s timing. When we pray for God’s will, we must abide by His timing.
- Sometimes it is good to wait. This was definitely a time of maturing our faith and relying on the Father, and His wisdom, to see us through a very dark period in our lives.
- I knew eventually that this fish WOULD get sick. Jonah was only in the fish for three days, but he was delivered, and we would be also. Jonah knew where God wanted him to go. At the time of our becoming fish bait, we didn’t know how our story would unfold. But we were never forgotten or forsaken, we were just in transition.
Sometimes being fish bait is not such a bad thing; just inconvenient. But in the end there are worse things than inconvenience. We must remember that God is not always the God of smooth sailing; sometimes the storms get our attention. It is exciting to know we will have grown, had an exciting adventure, and have had the incredible blessing of God’s direct leading when we are finally stepping on to a new shore; wherever that shore may be and doing whatever He has called us to do.
