The Whale in your Story
Dear Friends,
Last month, my church walked through the Biblical book of Jonah and I thought I’d write out parts of each chapter that impacted me and might impact you.
The story of Jonah starts with a prophet being called by God to go to Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria and was known for skinning the enemy alive. They were known for making their enemy’s loved ones carry the decapitated heads of husbands and fathers on a pole, parading them around the destroyed city. More than likely, this prophet, Jonah, had friends or family members violently oppressed or murdered by the Assyrian army.
God told Jonah to preach against this foreign people so God wouldn't destroy them. Knowing God’s heart of compassion, Jonah assumed this message was one of mercy and Jonah’s like, nope, and fled in the opposite direction on a boat. A massive storm came up and everyone on the boat thinks they’re going to die because someone must have done something wrong to make the gods so angry. After they discovered it was Jonah, Jonah jumped overboard and is swallowed by a big fish. He was in this big fish for three days and prayed to God, who had mercy on him. The fish spat Jonah out on land and Jonah journeyed toward Nineveh where he said five words about God’s mercy. Everyone repented and even the animals repented and wear sackcloth and Jonah became furious with God’s mercy for these people, so he sat under a tree and asked to die.
And the story ends with God asking Jonah a question: “should I not be concerned about these humans and animals?”
Over the next few days, I’ll pull apart each chapter, but I wanted to point out how easy it is for most people to get caught up in the details. The big fish easily becomes some litmus test for if you believe in miracles or not. Like, if you don’t believe Jonah was swallowed by this whale, then you probably don’t believe in Jesus being raised from the dead. The whole story, then, becomes about a whale.
Honestly, how many times has this story been relegated to nursery walls and Veggie Tales movies about a man and big fish? This fish is only mentioned twice in the first chapter and, yet, it’s all we really focus in this story and it’s not even the point of the story.
How often do we, as humans, tend to place our attention and focus on the parts of our life or the parts of our story that are not the point? It’s like if I focused all my attention on infertility and not being able to get pregnant. When we found out we would never have children in the typical way that most people have children, it was devastating. It certainly didn’t fit my plan for my life and it began to unravel any expectation for my future. I was angry and sad and frustrated that God would place a desire to be a mom on my heart but make it impossible to get pregnant.
Friends, infertility is part of my story but it’s not my whole story and it is certainly not what my story is about.
If you only knew me as “Bethany and infertility,” that would distract from the bigger picture of God working in my life for God’s glory, compassion, love, and grace to be seen. Sometimes we don’t know what to do with such a compassionate God that we look towards the seemingly impossible parts of our lives and make them into the story. We take the big things—the things that aren’t meant to be overlooked but certainly not meant to be obsessed over—and we make them into a whale that is difficult to see past.
What whales in your story have you been obsessively focused on that has made it hard to see past? Infidelity? Divorce? Illness? Childhood trauma?
Friends, the whale is not the point of this story. The whale in your life that you’ve given so much attention to is not the point of your story. It’s in your story, but it’s not your full story. You are more than that whale. Your marriage is more than that whale. Your life and ministry and family are more than that whale.
And this story is so much more than Jonah and a whale.
It’s about a God who pursues Jonah, who pursues our enemies, who pursues you and me. It’s about a God who still choses to work within the situations and contexts we find ourselves in or the ones we’ve made for ourselves. It’s about a God who never gives up and will always have the last word in our lives.
With (love),
Bethany