Jonah and the words - listening for God’s message of peace

“Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” Book of Jonah, Chapter 1, verse 17; King James Version

Really? Jonah lived in the belly of the great fish for three days. Preposterous, says most. Science tells us that it would be impossible to live inside any fish in existence today, and logic would argue that survival is as doubtful even seconds into the swallow.

We launched asweunderstandhim.coffee to serve as an onramp for those, like us, who are trying to figure out the God thing. We won’t pretend or imply that we have any knowledge which merits credibility when it comes to the theology or understanding of the complexities written in the Bible.

As for the passage of the fish residency, it doesn’t matter what we believe. It is there for a reason; how each sort this out is up to them.

We will share that we don’t pick and choose which passages to take as written. If we did, we might miss the revelation that draws us to peace. So often, our instinct, intellect, and ego beg to argue; however, we resist with resilience because we need to buy into the whole story. It is the hope we are buying, and that hope requires the unbelievable.

From beginning to end, the Bible delivers the unexplainable—one supernatural occurrence after another. Why? In our opinion, the books and chapters cry for our attention and contain the ingredients to a life of peace, regardless of the chaos that may surround us.

There are thousands of interpretations and trainings on the book of Jonah. The story is often recounted in churches all around the world. Children are taught the tale early in their journey.

Today, we opt to listen for the application in our life. What was Jonah doing? What was he thinking? Where was he going? What did God think of all of this? What did God do about it? What was Jonah’s response, and what should it have been?

This post won’t answer the above questions; we leave that for qualified teachers. But this post will remind us that we are not the world’s creator.

So, we CHOOSE to believe each word as it is written. That is our take; that these words were divinely written, and their purpose is to provide peace.

For context, we define “peace” as “a point in time where everything is ok.”. We are occasionally blessed with these moments.

We wish we could say this happens more and lasts longer, but that would not be truthful. Instead, we usually find these moments when we deeply connect with our creator through readings, teachings, audio and video, and communicating with another seeker(s). Sometimes we find it in our quiet times. Often we experience it at church.

We live today for “ok” and find our guide in the written word – as it is written.

Happy reading,

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Thoughts and ideas for this blog post were taken and built upon from asweunderstandhim.coffee podcast #12 “Spiritual Starting Points part 2” The podcast dropped on 6/18/2023. Click here to hear the podcast.

Photo by Iswanto Arif on Unsplash

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