Jonah 1:1-4:11
Revelation 5:1-14
Psalm 133:1-3
Proverbs 29:26-27
I remember a photograph I saw (which, for some reason, I am unable to find on the web these days), of a young lady, crying, clutching a handful of dirt. It was only after I read the caption that I realized they were tear of amazement and joy, and the dirt had just been trod by one of the Beatles, who were in the US for their concert tour in...when was that, 1964? I was - and this is not a word I use very often, or lightly - gobsmacked that someone would hunger for some form of connection with four kids who sang good music that they would be brought to tears by dirt that had touched their shoes. Not to judge this young lady (I am of the belief, after all, that the Beatles are the single best musical group to have walked the earth, with all due respect to fans of the Rolling Stones and U2), but I cannot help but wonder how different our world would be if we felt that same hunger for our Lord?
John had that hunger. Today's NT reading tells us he "wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside". He hungered so badly to know what God had to say that he was brought to tears by the possibility he wouldn't. Jonah didn't hunger for that sort of relationship with God - at least not as much as he seemed to want the acceptance of man, which is why he didn't like feeling like a fool when Nineveh repented and God didn't bring down the fire and brimstone He told Jonah to prophesy.
Today I find myself asking what I hunger for, and I am somewhat discouraged by my answers. Like Jonah, I find I still want other people's acceptance and respect; I still want to make a good living and have a comfortable life, and I want a good education, a good career, and good families for my children. And while there does not seem to be anything wrong with any of that, the importance I give them over a hunger for a relationship with God, for myself and for my family, seems less dramatic but no less ridiculous than hungering so painfully for any form of connection with a rock band that one would scoop up dirt they'd trod upon and weep because of it. And just because it all seems respectable does not make the absence of God any more stark, nor does it make my desires any less sinful.
I want a heart for God, and am frustrated when my sins - my desires and my actions - get in the way. There is a further lesson I take from Jonah today, though - it is that, however grievous our sin, however grievous the consequence we might be suffering because we have rejected God, we are never, ever going to so far away from Him that He cannot hear our cry of repentance - even in the belly of a whale, in the ocean depths. And we are never so grievously sinful that He will not forgive. I hope to learn and live, sooner rather than later, that "Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you...I will say 'salvation comes from the Lord.'"
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