Monday meditation: We, too, might actually consider running away
If nothing else, you can say this for Jonah: He made no pretense about what he was up to.
Even as he embarked on his get-out-of-town ship, he told the crew why he’d joined them. He was running away from God. And when the storm raged with an intensity that threatened the vessel and the men and their cargo, Jonah admitted, “This is all my fault.”
Furthermore, he did more than admit he was the reason for their peril. He volunteered a ready solution: “Throw me overboard.”
Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord (Jonah 1:3).
What was Jonah thinking? Did he really believe a voyage to the farthest corner of the world would take him outside God’s reach? Or did he actually want to die? Was his invitation to the desperate sailors just an ancient version of “suicide-by-cop”? Did Jonah not only want to get away from God but also escape any blame for his own death?
Any caregiver can readily relate to the impulse to run away. Any caregiver might be as frightened or repulsed by the tasks before him as Jonah was by the pagans God sent him to save. Does this mean God will zap us with a hurricane if we try to dodge our responsibilities at home?
Maybe not. God doesn’t go after everyone as he pursued Jonah. But if we disappeared, our betrayal would most definitely affect more than ourselves and our loved one. Just as Jonah’s disobedience brought threat to the lives of the crewmembers on his escape vessel, our departure would drastically damage the lives surrounding the sick one we left behind.
Our departure would drastically damage the lives surrounding
the sick one we left behind.
Very few choose a course as severe as that. Most partners or parents or children called to caregiving submit to their duty. But most of us caregivers have also at least questioned God about what we were facing.
And even if we think we’re giving everything, God may ask us for more. Just because we’re caregiving at home doesn’t mean we don’t have additional opportunities to do God’s work somewhere else.
In Jonah’s case, God wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. Is he waiting to hear “yes” from you? Do you know someone lonely or unhappy or confused or cantankerous? Is God waiting to use you as a channel for his goodness to them? Will it take a shipwreck to convince you he’s ready for you to get involved?
Read: Jonah 1
Pray: God, I’m trying to say “yes” to you with every demand I meet at home. But show me if there are even more ways you want to use me. And give me the courage not to run away.
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