Call Me Jonah

I have a confession.  I have been in the belly of a whale for the last three years.  I was told to go to Nineveh, and I went running the other way all the way to Tarsus.  I did not want to go to Nineveh.  I wanted to follow my own path and do my own thing.

Well, actually,  I don't know where Nineveh is or Tarsus either.   And there are no whales in this part of Missouri.

You see, this is not the first time that God told me to start a blog.  He told me that three years ago.      I set up an account, and I froze.  I never wrote anything.

Sort of.

I began a journal where I wrote down times I could remember God working in my life.  I made a list of all the things that I wanted to write about.  The list was pretty long.  I thought I would start posting them once I had them all on paper, once I was caught up.  (That sounds so ridiculous to me now; how could I ever be caught up on God working in my life?  Wouldn't that mean He was no longer at work?) I wrote in my journal pretty faithfully for a while, and then it became sporadically, and eventually, it was not at all.  I, more or less, forgot about it.

It wasn't until I was trying to came up with a name for my blog the other day that I remembered.  I was desperately trying to come up with something catchy, some clever use of words, names, and truth.  I was not coming up anything.  All of a sudden, I realized that I already had my title.  God gave it to me when He first asked me to do this.  I dug out my journal, and there was the title neatly written on the first page: When God Calls My Name.

God called my name three years ago.  Three. Years. Ago.  Almost to the day exactly.  Since I realized that, it keeps ringing in my head.  Three years.  It has taken me three years to be faithful and obedient to what I have been called to do.  Can I just tell you the heartbreak and sadness that I am feeling that it has been that long? It only took Jonah three days in the belly of the whale to figure out that there was no escaping God's call, but it has taken me three years.  Ouch!

Since posting my first entry earlier this week,  I have felt enormously blessed.  There have been a number of people who not only read it but encouraged me to keep going.  A friend shared with me her plans to answer God's call.  The words I wrote touched hearts.  There is joy in that.  More than that, though, is the joy and deep satisfaction I am feeling at doing what God asked me to do.  It took me a while to get started, but it feels good.  I am excited now, and I want that feeling to continue.

Today, I am leaving for Nineveh.  I'll see you there.