This Little Light of Mine

Growing in God

Jul 16

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm going to let it shine.

Well, I’ll let it shine as long as it doesn’t take me out of my comfort zone.

As long as it is for people that I think deserve it.

As long as it goes along with the plan that I have imagined.

As long as it doesn’t hurt too much.

…

I agree with Pastor Alan.

Jonah is a jerk and a fool.

It’s been a challenge for me to get my mind around this adult perception of Jonah after growing up thinking he was only a hero with a fantastical story. In my youth I didn’t see his complaining or rebellion as much as I was caught up in the flannel-graph fish that saved him, you know, the one we all sat in front of in Sunday School.

As an adult I appreciate what the whale did, it is quite impressive of God to save Jonah in that way. What draws my attention back again and again now is Jonah’s attitude toward doing what God called him to do. I mean, he was a prophet. He should have been ready to obey His voice, right?

God called him to go one way and he purposefully went in the opposite direction. Again, he knew who God was. It seems Jonah was fine following what God wanted him to do in the past but not this time. Now God was asking him to go to a people he thought deserved judgement, his enemy even.

Jonah was eager to “hide his light under a bushel” in this situation.

He had many reasons for wanting to hide this light. None of which were from God.

In Jonah chapter 2 we see clearly that Jonah knew exactly Who saved his life in the belly of the fish. Even in his rebellion, when he had no way of escape, he knew he could call out to God.

5 The waters closed in over me to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
6 at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord my God.
Jonah 2:5-6

Pastor Nathan reminded us on Sunday that God is in the depths, “…Jonah recognizes that God was working in the whole situation. He recognizes that God was in the storm. He recognized that God allowing him to be thrown into the raging sea was actually Gods method of saving him, not destroying him.”

He is also in our depths.

Now, I have not been in a life-or-death situation but I have been immersed in a self-made mess. I have rebelled. I have heard the Lord direct me and went in the opposite direction. In the depths of my deepest despair, when it seemed like the situation could not get worse, I too have called out to God, knowing only He could salvage the situation.

There are also depths that we must voyage through that are not of our own making.

At various times I have plodded through the emotional waters of this world, just trying to keep my face above water so I could catch my breath. When I sat beside my father drawing his last breaths and months later sitting by my father-in-law going through the exact. same. thing. Even now, watching my daughter, seeing her travail over her first pregnancy ending just as it was beginning. This is as real as it gets.

No matter if it is self-created or not of my own making, the prayers are usually very similar to Psalm 4:1,

“Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!”

The God that created the land and the sea never left me. Hope sprang up in Jonah, when he looked again to God just as it springs up within us when we look to Him.

Not only has He never left me, He has used all of these things to save me.

What should have been my demise broke me in a way that led me straight to Him.

So seriously, what in the world is wrong with me? Like Jonah, having seen God move before and knowing Who He is, why don’t I just jump up and go and do what the Lord leads me to? Every time? And, most importantly, with a good attitude. If I can give testimony to how He has never left me, made me stronger, has met me in the depths, and can give testimony of accounts of the same from friends and family what is my hesitation?

It is great to know that God is in the depths with us.

But, what if we spent more time out of the depths because we turned to Him as a first response?

You want to experience an inner surge of adrenaline and expectation? When you hear the Lord guide you, go. Do it. Say it. Whatever it is. There is absolutely nothing like it! Whew! Hands shaking, palms sweating, knees knocking, mind doubting. Yes! Take the step in the direction you are asked to go. The peace that follows, inexpressible.

Don’t hide your light under a bushel!

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!

Jonah finally, reluctantly, let his light shine. He let the light of God shine through his life, even if he didn’t agree with saving the people of Nineveh. God was able to accomplish mighty things through Jonah. This should be a great comfort to us, God can use us, often times, in spite of ourselves. Imagine if we all willingly and deliberately followed the leading of the Lord. Every time.