by pamela long, contributing writer

Until the Stonebriar Women's Ministries offered the summer Bible study Jonah: God's Reluctant Prophet, I don't recall reading the book of Jonah in adulthood. I'd "been there, done that" in Vacation Bible School. Whether it is the children's sing-along or parental anecdotes to gain immediate obedience, for me the Jonah story called to mind what happens when you don't do what you're told to do at the time you're told to do it.

The Bible study provided a great opportunity to meet new girlfriends while studying a familiar spiritual subject. True to expectations, the ladies were warm and friendly, but in short order I realized, "Wow, I don't know Jonah!"

Led by Alicia McNairy, the study guided participants to see, through Jonah's disobedience and disciplining, the preeminent message of God's compassion and grace and His supreme and purposeful ownership of that which He has created: Jonah, the whale, you, me, them.

As McNairy shares, "The take-away from the Jonah experience is twofold. First we learn that our disobedience does not remove us from God's loving care and protection. Then, we are recipients of His grace and mercy and are called to have that same compassion on a lost world–even to those whom we feel are undeserving or those we deem the unimportant people in life."

Perhaps in hindsight and self-assessment, Jonah shook his head and realized he'd taken the long road to Nineveh. God knew Jonah's heart, but, like most of us, Jonah had to first change his mind (his availability) in order to be blessed and to be a blessing to the audience for which he was called. With a fresh understanding of Jonah, many of us in the study wondered what preconceptions of ourselves, and others, complicate God's purposes in our lives. We prayed in response, "Lord, may it not take being swallowed by a fish to get us where you want us to be." Amen.