Day 1 of Thankfulness ~ Thanksgiving in the Muck

Thanksgiving in the Muck Thanksgiving Day 1 Jonah 1-4 One of my favorite books of the Bible is Jonah. This probably seems very odd, but I have tons of journaled notes in my Bible, in the book of Jonah. When I am angry I read it. When I am sad I read it. It's a short book of the Bible and it's simple and entertaining to read. It's easy to understand, too. The reason I love it so much is because I identify with Jonah. I identify with Jonah a little too much, unfortunately. I encourage you to read it; it will only take ten minutes. You might find yourself in Jonah, just like I do. You'll see your own disobedience, your bitterness, your anger, your unforgiving spirit, your rebelliousness, and other negative personality traits, in the person of Jonah. However, I hope that you will also see in Jonah, his teachable spirit, his humility, his repentance, and his thanksgiving. I hope you will be able to see yourself in this light, as well. If you'd like, please read Jonah 1-4, and then join me here, when you're done. Throughout the years, I've learned more than I care to admit from Jonah, but today I want to focus on the thankfulness (or lack thereof) of Jonah. Rather than being thankful for the job God had given Jonah, he rebelled and disobeyed God, and even ran in the opposite direction. Jonah had no heart for the Ninevites and no thankfulness for the privilege of doing God's work in Nineveh. Once he came to his senses, Jonah proclaimed the Word of the Lord to the Ninevites but in reality, his heart really wasn't in it. He was not thankful that God had relented from sending the calamity, once Nineveh repented. Jonah sat outside the city, angry and perturbed, and hot. He was thankful when God provided shade for him to ease his physical discomfort, but God will not relieve spiritual discomfort, when the purpose is discipline. Jonah became angry when the shade was destroyed, not realizing that the shade was an object lesson, meant to teach him something about himself, and others. I encourage you to dig deep into Jonah chapter 4. Discover for yourself the meaning that God may have in it, for YOU. Draw some of your own conclusions, about the ending. I promise you, God will show you something. There are so many points to the book of Jonah that I can't choose just one to emphasize. But, what I do want to emphasize today, is true thankfulness, even in the murky, mucky, messy areas of life. We get to peek into Jonah's life when he is at his lowest point (no pun intended) in Chapter 2. The whole chapter shows his repentance, sorrow, and his thanksgiving (in verse 9). He is so grateful to God that he realizes he must keep his vows. We don't know what they were, but I believe they were vows to serve the Lord. How quickly Jonah went back to his despondency, though, and how like him we are. It's so easy to call upon God in times of trouble, stating all manner of things which we seriously mean, only to forget about them when times are good. Let's be honest and admit that when times are hard and life is messy it's hard to be thankful. It took being swallowed by a fish for Jonah to be thankful. Let's also be honest and admit that when life is good, we get busy, and we forget to be thankful. In order to reconcile these two extremes, we must come to the point where we 'look' for things to be thankful for if times aren't going so well, and we remember the Lord's grace and goodness when times are good, and we don't forget to be thankful then, either. So look around today, no matter where you find yourself, and find one thing to be thankful for! Even Jonah found many things to be thankful for when he found himself in the belly of a fish, surrounded by muck. I think we can, too! <3