When We Don't Get Our Way

Read Jonah 1.

Jonah. Prophet of God. Son of Amittai. Lover of Israel.

That's what his Facebook profile said. He had worked hard on putting in just the right words, in the right order, and he smiled every time he signed in. And sign in he did, quite frequently. You never know when "the word of the Lord" might come to him, even through Facebook.

This day was no exception. As he was scrolling through his feed, he noticed an instant message pop up. And it was a big one, an important one. It was from "The Lord."

Nervously, Jonah clicked on "Messenger" to read the message. It was worse than he feared. The message was to the point: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

Nineveh. He didn't have to run the Maps app to know where that was. It was in the middle of enemy territory. It was the capital of enemy territory. He routinely posted jokes online about the "Ninevites" and how stupid they were. Everyone did. Political cartoons often slammed the Ninevites and late-night comedians made fun of everything about them. No one liked the Ninevites.

No one, it seemed, except "The Lord."

Quickly, he began to type a message in return to "The Lord."

Dear The Lord, I received your message and am sorry but I cannot comply. I looked through my contract as Prophet and could not find any clause that specified preaching outside of Israel. That's just not what I like to do. You may not have known, but I have unfollowed and/or unfriended any Ninevites that I used to be Facebook friends with. Their way of doing things just was not something I could agree with, and their political posts were way out of line. You even mention in your message to me that they are wicked. Why, then, would I bother to preach to them? Just go ahead and destroy them and get it over with. That'll be fine with me. Sincerely, your servant, Jonah.

He read through the message again as the cursor blinked over the "send" button. It sounded kind of harsh. It sounded like a child who didn't get his way and, instead of working things out, was just taking his toys and leaving. Or, worse yet, destroying the other kid's toys. Was that how he really wanted to come across to The Lord? Jonah hung his head in shame, embarrassed that he had ever written that message. He couldn't respond that way to The Lord. The Lord had asked him to do something, to stay in the game. There really was only one response he could give.

So he quickly deleted the message without sending it, then clicked open another tab. He had to see what ships were sailing toward Tarshish this time of year. ProphetsOnTheRun.com, anyone?