Suffer or Surrender?
Previously, I wrote about Passover, and how it’s important to sift through our emotional baggage. We spend a lot of time on our outward appearance, but we often don’t take enough time on self-reflection and fixing what is inside. To continue that thought, the book of Jonah offers another perspective to the concept of self-reflection.
For a short synopsis of the book, Jonah is supposed to go to Nineveh to try and get the people to repent. Jonah doesn’t want to go to Nineveh, so he gets on a boat and goes in the opposite direction. God doesn’t appreciate the disobedience, and he causes a big storm to form. Jonah continues to avoid his problems and takes a nap during the storm until the captain wakes him up. The other people on the boat cast lots to figure out which person is to blame for the storm, and it lands on Jonah. Jonah tells the others to throw him overboard, but they refuse at first and try to sail through and fight the storm. Inevitably they decide that they have to throw him overboard, and as soon as Jonah is in the water, the storm stops. Jonah is then swallowed by a big fish sent by God. Jonah spends three days and nights in the fish wrestling with God and himself about going to Nineveh. Jonah eventually repents and the fish vomits Jonah up on dry land. Jonah finds his way to Nineveh and tells them the message God sent him to deliver about repentance. They listen to Jonah and end up repenting, and Jonah goes out of the city, sits under a tree, and sulks. God takes the tree away because of Jonah’s attitude, and Jonah sulks some more.
The account of Jonah teaches us that everyone is fighting their own unique battle. Jonah was fighting the calling that God put on his life, and there was no one else in that wrestling match but Jonah. He made up his mind that God was wrong and carried his baggage of evidence with him as he ran away.
We often do the same thing, silently building a case for our perspective in our various circumstances. As the baggage is collected, it weighs us down. Instead of purging the junk, we dig our heels in even more. Eventually, we will be forced to face the darkest parts of ourselves in our own version of a whale. No one else can fight that battle for us, and no one will be able to join us in the whale. That battle is always between us and the Lord, but as Jonah demonstrates, there is always a purpose behind the fight.
We can either be like Jonah and struggle against the calling God has given us and suffer in the whale, or we can surrender and be set free. Passover is the season of our freedom!
Blog post by Emma Shaff
Photo from Unsplash by @gabrieldizzi