Rest of the Story

  This morning I led a men's prayer breakfast at church. The devotional was a brief study of the Book of Jonah. There are several reasons I chose this for this morning:

1. Jonah is a very short book

2. It is very readable

3. I have done several studies on Jonah in the past- so I didn't have to do much prep.

   I did something a little different today. Because there was less discussion than normal, ( old men don't like to discuss much,) I had time at the end. Since Jonah ends so abruptly, I asked the guys to write the ending. I said be brief, maybe a paragraph, to fit the rest of the book. The answers were interesting.

  Not one man ended the book with Jonah recanting and going back to town to make disciples. Some had him passing on the edge of town waiting, others thought he turned and went home. One man said he was stuck dead by God, ( so much for the compassion and mercy as the theme.)

  How do you end the story, ( you may want to re-read the book to help.) Just a thought. Does how we finish this story have anything to do with how we see God?  If God goes through the trouble of transporting Jonah in the belly of a fish, would he then let him do a job half-way? Do we, as humans, have the freedom of choice it would take to do nothing but bitch?  Since this an OT ( Old Testament) God, would he smite Jonah for being lippy? 

Go-Fight-Win. Amen