look again

I can relate to Jonah.

Jonah messed up. When God gave him a job, he ran in the opposite direction, so God had to stop him, turn him around, and get him on his way to Nineveh. He did that, of course, with a big storm and three days in the belly of a fish.

While inside the fish, Jonah prayed. Part of his prayer is recorded in Jonah 2:4-7 

"I said, ‘I have been banished

from your sight;

yet I will look again

toward your holy temple.’

The engulfing waters threatened me,

the deep surrounded me;

seaweed was wrapped around my head.

To the roots of the mountains I sank down;

the earth beneath barred me in forever.

But you, Lord my God,

brought my life up from the pit.

When my life was ebbing away,

I remembered you, Lord,

and my prayer rose to you,

to your holy temple."

Jonah ran, Jonah was caught, and in the belly of the fish he looked again to God. That's what makes me relate to Jonah. Like Jonah I can be sure I know how God's kingdom should advance. Sometimes I'm so sure I'm right that I do the wrong thing.

But it's never because I lose faith in God, or want to break away from him. Always I find myself, like Jonah, looking back to God and saying, "I remember what it was like to be close to you, and I just want to get back there again. I'm in a mess of my own making, but I still trust you and I know you still love me, so here I am, looking to you to get me out again."

Sure, I look away sometimes when I don't like where God has me heading. But I always look again to God because I know that's where all the goodness of my life is.