God Doesn't Need a Consultant

He wasn't told the outcome. He wasn't asked about it. His opinion didn't matter. God just wanted him to do something. Something specific. Something strange. Something so scary that he ran away.

Jonah.

He's the guy who ended up in the belly of the big fish in that short 2-page book of the Bible. He is responsible for several children's songs and felt-board characters. God asked him to do something that included going to a specific place. He ran in the opposite direction. He was thrown off of a boat in a storm and was eaten by a big fish. Inside the belly of this fish, he prayed. He changed his mind about what he would do, was thrown up onto the shore and went to the place where God told him to go. He did his job. He expected certain results. He expected that the people he didn't like would get punished, that the bullies in the elementary-school classroom of life would finally be sent to the principal's office and to get what he thought they deserved.

But that didn't happen. God didn't ask for his opinion or for his advice. He sent him to this strange land to do a certain job, and when it was done, God forgave these people revealing his great love and compassion and mercy.

Jonah didn't want it to go down this way. He was angry. He was so angry that he threw a temper-tantrum about a plant that died. Seriously. Look it up. It's true.

The end of "the guy in the belly of a big fish story" bothers me each time I read it. It bothers me not because there's something strange that doesn't make sense to me...but rather because it hits home too closely.

I. GET. JEALOUS.

I get jealous of people who seem to be blessed even though they hurt me. (That's just not right.) I get jealous of people with whom I've shared my dreams and hopes...and then they come true for their lives and not mine. (That's not fair.) I get jealous of people who seem to have it all going so well in their lives, even though my life is pretty dang great itself. (That's not enough.) I get jealous. I want to pout and kick and scream about a silly little plant dying and complain that God didn't bless me the way I wanted him to...and worse, he blessed those other people in a way that I didn't think that they deserved.

Someone once asked me if I could eliminate one human emotion from the spectrum of emotions that we experience, what would it be. I chimed up right away: jealousy. Jealousy destroys friendships. Jealousy creates grudges. Jealousy inspires revenge. Jealousy hurts. Jealousy - to me - has very few positive benefits. Of course, I logically understand "good" jealousy. But that's not my point today.

Chapter 4. I get all the way through the first three chapters of this short book nodding my head and making notes as I observe what God's story is teaching me. And then I get to chapter 4. I'm glad that chapter 4 is in there the same way that I'm glad I get to go to yoga each week. It's good for me, like eating my vegetables. It reminds me that God's love and compassion and mercy surprises me. It reminds me that I am not the authority figure on when and where that love and compassion and mercy is expressed. It reminds me that I am blessed. It reminds me that there is a God who created this great big universe and that he's still in control...and that he doesn't need a consultant.