There is a book in the Bible called 'Jonah', and before Jonah was swallowed by a giant fish, he was taking a nap. And before he was taking a nap, God called him to go to the city of Nineveh, which was the capital of Assyria (today it is where Iraq is).
Jonah disobeyed God and ran the opposite direction to Nineveh. He hopped on a boat to set sail for Tarshish, which is where Spain is today.
On the boat he took a nap, actually, he took more than a nap - he fell into a deep sleep. This was whilst a violent storm was happening, which God had sent.
The sailors were scared and cried out to their god. Nothing changed. They threw cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. Nothing changed.
Then the captain went down below deck, woke Jonah from his deep sleep, and said to him, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish." (Book of Jonah chapter 1 verse 6)
Jonah was a man of faith and so were the sailors. They believed in different gods though. In a crisis, the captain angrily (and rightly so), reprimanded Jonah: "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god!"
The threat of death is imminent but Jonah doesn't seem to care about himself nor the people around him. It wasn't until some discussions later that Jonah realised it was his fault for causing the storm. He willingly suggested to be thrown overboard to calm the storm.
This isn't the same as the time when Jesus calmed the storm.
The disciples were at fault for not seeing that God Himself was on the boat with them. They shouldn't need to be afraid when God is literally with them in the storm!
In this part of Jonah's story, there's an important lesson for us to learn here:
Christians, do something!
How many of us have settled into the comfort of our religious routine without making any impact in our surroundings?
Church on Sunday, mid-week Bible study and prayer meetings.
Worship, studying God's Word and prayer are good things, but if it doesn’t spur us to move beyond our comfort zone to love our neighbours - especially our non-Christian neighbours, then we need to evaluate our Christian lives.
On the boat, Jonah had an opportunity to be a Christian witness. From the clues in the text, it seems that Jonah explained that he was running away from the Lord, but he conveniently left out the part about 'which' god he believed in. It wasn't until chapter 1 verse 9 where he told the sailors, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."
The sailors knew he believed in a god (as expected in the ancient world) but Jonah didn't want to say which god and when a crisis happened, he didn't want to help. He's more comfortable sleeping and be anywhere but where God wants him to be.
If you have a powerful tool, use it!
Here's another way to think about it.
If you and five other random people fell into a deep ditch and you're the only one with tools that can help you climb out and call for help, you should use it. People's lives are counting on you.
Our most powerful 'tool' is God. We have access to God thanks to Jesus Christ our Lord. God is not just an imaginary being floating in heaven. He is all-powerful and almighty who cares about what's happening in the world.
So let's not keep him to ourselves.
In a broken world that’s filled with suffering and chaos, let's be proactive in doing good in the Name of our Lord.
Rachel is a pastor, preacher and writer. Based in Sydney, she’s a fan of literature, sport and the arts. Check out her website rachellhli.wordpress.com