Dare to Dream: Getting Rid of Your 'Buts'

         We aren’t quite told how the call of God came to Jonah. Perhaps it was a gentle whisper, a dream, a vision, an audible voice, or maybe an inner leading. But Jonah knows that it is the unmistakably the voice and call of God because what it was telling him to do was quite unwelcome. Not anything that he would pick for himself. 

The call was to go at once to the great city of Nianevah that had been sinning in the face of God and cry out against it. Essentially Jonah was being told to go to a city where he would not be welcomed and preach a message that no one would want to hear. 

Jonah didn’t argue with God’s call. He didn’t try to negotiate. In fact, he didn’t verbally respond at all. But his actions spoke loud and clear what he felt. He fled. The complete opposite direction. 

      Wether we run with our feet or run with our excuses, How many of us can identify with Jonah at this point in the story. You’ve had this inkling that you were supposed to do something for God. A vision. A nudge. But it felt extremely uncomfortable, or inconvenient, or you thought demanded too much of a sacrifice. So you ran. You may not have called it running. Maybe you just tried to rationalize that it couldn’t be the voice of God. Or that you needed to be more sure before acting. Whatever the case, it was running from the call. Running for the One who calls.

     When is a time that you ran from the call of God? What excuses do you need to set aside in order to stop running now?