Today we begin a series on the book of Jonah. It’s the story of the prophet who runs away from God. Jonah avoids doing the good thing that God had asked him to do and heads in the opposite direction. Now there’s something we can all relate to.
Surprisingly, people love running away from good things. It’s almost like we do it for fun. The dentist wants us to floss more, but we don’t. The physio wants us to do the exercises that would help us but we don’t do them. Our doctor wants us to eat healthier but we don’t. God wants more time with us, but we’re too busy. We want to see our family more but we don’t organise it. We have a few hours in the evening to work on achieving our dreams, but we watch Netflix instead.
Why do we avoid the things we know are good for us? Why do we avoid good things that will help others? Why do we avoid good things we actually want and are allowed to have!? Running away from good is often easier because it doesn’t require any change. Change on the other hand is harder because it brings discomfort and may even put us at some risk (exposure, pain, failure, humiliation).
Jesus died to overcome our love of running away from good things. He died to change how we think about the purpose of our lives. He died to save us from self-destructive behaviour. In Jesus, we find more good for ourselves and others than we can fathom. Through Jesus change is
possible. After all, he made the difficult change of leaving his Father’s side to pursue us and bring about the greatest good in our lives. He knows what it’s like to go through difficult change so that good will be done.
It’s not easy pursuing the good he has for us and the good he wants us to do for others, but it’s possible because he has the power to be with us and to help us. In the story of Jonah, God was always with him even in his failure to do the good asked of him. The story is an encouragement to us that no matter where we run to, Jesus is always with us, helping us to both do and value the good he wants for us.