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Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
-Jonah 1:1-3
"Before he built rockets for the Nazis, an idealistic Wernher von Braun dreamed of space travel. He stargazed. You know what he said when the first V2 rocket hit London? 'The rocket performed perfectly. It just landed on the wrong planet.'"
The book of Jonah doesn’t record what Jonah said to God when he got word from the Lord to head to Nineveh, but it does record what he did. He took off on the next boat in the opposite direction. I like that the book doesn’t indicate God told Jonah directly. It says, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah.” For those of us who have heard or felt God’s calling by less direct means in our lives, we can relate. Perhaps a job offer that brings us new joy and fulfillment, a relationship that others champion as a perfect match, a difficult kid or coworker you know needs your empathy or encouragement or counsel that feels like the Lord calling us. Werner von Braun, famous scientist forced to work for the Nazis, saw firsthand the tragedy of something intended for good heading for the wrong destination.
And that leads us to Jonah. Some calls are a joy, and some are uncomfortable, challenging, or even terrifying. And when they’re the latter, we run the other way. When we clash with friends and family, when we watch news stories about people we look down on, avoid difficult colleagues and coworkers, we are running for Tarshish. We can hardly claim not to know God wants us to be loving primarily to those who are difficult to love. In fact, from Jonah to Jesus, we find God telling us to focus our time and energy on loving those who are hardest to love first.
This begs that important guiding spiritual question of our faith, maybe the most important one... who am I struggling to love? For most of us, that list quickly forms itself. Other times, our fellow believers call our attention to those we have ignored or neglected. But between our own self-introspection, our faith family and trusted spiritual mentors, the word of the Lord comes down to us. In those moments, we can choose to flee or choose to go where God calls. The good news is that God promises hard journeys, but good endings when we do. The end is always love and reconciliation. We get the choice of destination when we set sail. Who is God calling you to seek out this week? And which way will you choose to go? Will we flee or find purpose?
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