Fish Guts

Whenever the kids and I would go to Colorado in the summer, we would always go fishing. The Lions Club in the little town we stayed in had two ponds stocked with trout, one for the adults to fish in and one for the kids (the pond for the kids had more fish, go figure). We caught quite a few fish throughout the summers we were there, but the all-time record for the biggest trout caught by a member of our little family is held by my daughter Meghann. Yep, the baby girl of the family caught a huge trout one year, and she's never let her brothers forget that she is better at fishing than they are.

I've been thinking a lot about fishing for the last couple of weeks because I was asked to lead this evening's Awana lesson on Jonah. You know, the guy who tried to run away from God and what He asked him to do. The guy who ended up getting tossed overboard by the sailors on the boat he was trying to escape in. The guy who got swallowed by a big, giant fish. The guy who spent three days and nights in the slimy, gooey belly of said fish. Yuck, yuck, and triple yuck.

The more I've thought about old Jonah, the more I've thought about how much I'm like him at times. God tells me to go somewhere or do something, and instead of being obedient, I jump on a boat and try to escape. And though God doesn't send a real fish to swallow me up, He often allows me to end up in a slimy, gooey place that feels an awful lot like the belly of a big, giant fish until I wise up and do what He asked me to do or go where He asked me to go. It never ceases to amaze me that God doesn't grow so weary of my disobedience that He just decides to leave me in the fish's belly.

I realized on my way home from church tonight that the lesson for the kiddos this evening was as much for me as it was for them ... perhaps even more for me than for them. It's been a long time since I meditated on the story of Jonah ... a long time since I pondered the consequences of my own disobedience to God. I talked to the kids tonight about how God gave Jonah a second chance, about how when the fish spit Jonah out on the sand, God asked Jonah again to go preach in Nineveh. And the Bible says that old Jonah packed his bags in a hurry that time and hightailed it to Nineveh to do what God asked Him to do. So here's the thing ... God has given me so many second chances over the years that I've lost count, and yet I still manage to try my best to run away from Him ... and I end up right back in the belly of that big fish. And you know what? He keeps right on telling that fish to spit me out on the sand ... He keeps right on calling me to serve Him ... He keeps right on giving me chance after chance after chance to obey Him ... and He keeps right on forgiving me when I don't.

Thank You, Lord, for little kids and the way You use them to teach me Your lessons ... thank You, Lord, for not giving up on me ... thank You, Lord, for all those second chances ... thank You, Lord, for loving me even when I'm covered in slimy, gooey fish guts.