“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.”
- Jonah 2:1
“But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
- Jonah 2:9
I don’t always make the best decisions.
Matter of fact, if it smells interesting, looks chewy, or has been lying in the yard just long enough to make my human holler, I’m probably going to eat it.
That’s exactly what I did the other day.
Didn’t take long before my stomach started doing flip-flops. I quit chasing squirrels, laid down under the porch, and wondered why something that looked so good could make me feel so bad.
My human sat beside me, rubbed my ears, and softly said, “Buddy, sometimes what we want isn’t what we need.”
I wasn’t feeling much like barking, but I listened.
And lying there, I got to thinking about Jonah.
Most folks remember the whale.
I think Jonah remembered the silence and the acidic smell.
Can you imagine?
No place to run.
No crowd to impress.
No excuses left to make.
Just Jonah… God… that smell and a whole lot of time to think.
Sometimes the belly is the only place quiet enough for us to hear the Lord.
Folks talk about the whale, but I guess the whale wasn’t necessarily the punishment—it was the place where Jonah finally got still enough to hear God.
Sometimes we all end up “in the belly.”
Maybe it’s because of our own choices.
Maybe it’s disappointment, loss, pride, or plain old stubbornness.
Whatever got us there, God has a way of turning dark places into classrooms.
Jonah learned obedience.
I learned that not everything is food.
My human?
He smiled and said, “Grace is getting another chance after making a bad choice.”
I like that.
By the next morning my tail was wagging again, my stomach had settled, and breakfast tasted a whole lot better than whatever foolish thing I’d found the day before.
God doesn’t leave us in the belly forever.
He teaches us there.
He changes us there.
Then, when the lesson is learned, He gives us another chance to walk in obedience.
This old dog still sniffs around more than he should.
But every now and then, I remember that upset stomach and decide to leave some things lying where they belong.
Maybe that’s a lesson for all of us.
Prayer: Lord, thank You for never wasting the hard places. Teach us what we need to learn in the belly and what we would never learn on the mountaintop. Give us the wisdom to walk away from what harms us, the humility to admit when we’ve wandered the wrong way, and the faith to trust that Your mercy is always greater than our mistakes. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Keep the Faith… Carpe Diem
