Reflecting on the word

Reflecting on today's reading, God called Jonah to go to the great city of Nineveh but instead he boarded a ship to another country which caused the ship to have turbulence on its way. Now the question is why will Jonah avoid carrying out God's works? Why was he avoiding the city of Nineveh? I got some quiet and calm places to reflect on this. Eventually everything that happens in the bible is not new in the present world. Most times I ask myself how God truly calls people. Do you hear his voice? Most people will answer it through dreams, some will say your parents are the God you see, so you have to respect them. Most times I don't actually know what to believe anymore. If I try to dilute most delusional dreams, there are dreams you have and it comes to real in the next few days. I don't know whether it happens to you but I kept asking myself these questions. In a traditional African setting they call it signs or warnings. I don't actually want to drive into that because most times I can't just explain it.

Meanwhile back to our reading, after Jonah got kicked out of the ship because of the turbulence of the ship. He was swallowed by a fish and he stayed in the fish belly for 3 days. I try to imagine being swallowed by a fish and how Jonah felt being in the fish belly. I ask myself within those few days how did he eat? How did he breathe? What did he drink? How was he able to cope? How did he survive? All these questions flooded my mind. Anyway one can stay 3 days without food and water and still survive especially if you're doing fasting so it's a pass for Jonah. What about oxygen? How was he able to breathe? The stomach was supposed to be hot so how was he able to survive it but he did anyway and when the fish vomited him.
He found himself in the land of Nineveh. That city God sent him to do his work.

Earlier I asked the question of why Jonah was avoiding carrying out God's work? The people of Israelites were given to the pagan city as slaves whenever they disobeyed God. They suffered the riot as slaves, Nineveh was a pagan city and they enslaved the Israelites before they broke free. Their wounds were still fresh before Jonah was sent to that same great city to preach the word to the people of Nineveh. Jonah didn't hesitate to go because he wanted vengeance. He wanted revenge. Just imagine when an opportunity comes then you're asked to present it to your worst enemy. If you're in the human resources department and your rivalry comes by to apply for a job in that firm. Will you be kind enough to give the job to him/ her? That's the same position Jonah was in, he couldn't get himself to carry out God's works as they were being enslaved by the people of Nineveh. He wanted punishment over these people not for them to repent from their evil ways. Here comes the question, how do you handle inbuilt hurt from a person? How do you handle bullying from fellow students? How do you handle your rivalry? Do you seek revenge or forgiveness? Think about it!
Image is mine