A day’s journey

I’m still hanging out in the story of Jonah — I have been for quite some time now, even though I haven’t written much about it. He’s quite an interesting man, one who gives me hope that God can use any of us, even the most reluctant.

Yesterday, we talked about the cost of disobedience. What strikes me, too, is that Jonah was willing to pay that cost. He intentionally disobeyed the call of God, and yet in the first part of chapter 3, we see how he is now intentionally obeying that call.

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” (‭‭Jonah‬ ‭3:3-4‬ ‭NIV, emphasis mine)

Jonah didn’t just stand at the city gates and speak the word to a few outsiders. He walked almost to the center of this mammoth city to deliver the news that would surely get him killed. It wasn’t as if he’d have friends and allies on the day’s journey back out of the city if they didn’t repent. It’s an overused phrase, but Jonah was all in. Literally.

He’d been in the belly of the great fish, and now he was in the belly of the great beast. His life was completely in the hands of the God who had sent him there, and as intentional as he’d been about disobeying before, he was intentional about obeying now.

I don’t know specifically what God has called you to do, but don’t just dabble with it. Don’t be satisfied to dip your toes in the waters of obedience; go all in.

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