Friday, October 14, 2011

Growing in the Belly of the Fish(2011Oct16)

Series: Jonah’s Journey M3 11 10 16
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: Growing in the Belly of the Fish
Text: Jonah 2:1-3:6
BIG IDEA: Suffering in the belly of the whale can prepare us for our life work.
Ignatian seminary announcement.. we can learn from Catholics… Father Thomas Green… prayer, Scripture and imagination… in prayer.
One Halloween a mom came to the door of someone I know to trick or treat. Why didn't she send in her kid? Well, the weather's a little bad, she said; she was driving so he didn't have to walk in the mist.
But why not send him to the door? He had fallen asleep in the car, she said, so she didn't want him to have to wake up.
This person I know felt like saying, "Why don't you eat all his candy and get his stomach ache for him, too—then he can be completely protected!"
Some of us are part of a generation of adults called "helicopter parents," because we're constantly hovering over our kids ready to swoop into our kid's education, relations, sports life, etc., to make sure no one is mistreating them and no one is disappointing them. We want them to experience one unobstructed success after another.





Psychologist Jonathan Haidt had a hypothetical exercise: Imagine that you have a child, and for five minutes you're given a script of what will be that child's life. You get an eraser. You can edit it. You can take out whatever you want.
You read that your child will have a learning disability in grade school. Reading, which comes easily for some kids, will be difficult for yours.
In high school, your kid will make a great circle of friends, but then one of them will die of cancer.
After high school this child will actually get into the college they wanted to attend. While there, there will be a car crash, and your child will lose a leg and go through a difficult depression.
A few years later, your child will get a great job—then lose that job in an economic downturn.
Your child will get married, but then go through the grief of separation.
You get this script for your child's life and have five minutes to edit it.
What would you erase?
Wouldn't you want to take out all the stuff that would cause them pain?
If we could wave a magic wand and erase every failure, suffering, and pain—are we sure it would be a good idea? Would it cause our child to grow up to be a better, stronger, more generous person? Is it possible that in some way people actually need adversity, setback, maybe even something like trauma, to reach the fullest level of growth?
In order for us to prepare for our life calling, like Jonah some of us are going to have to spend some time in the belly of a whale.
We are in a series in the book of Jonah.
To recap the context, God has called the prophet Jonah to go to the Ninevites, the arch enemies of his people, to call them to turn from their violent ways and to seek the Living God.
But Jonah doesn’t want to go.
Jonah does not want to go because he does not want to fail in his preaching mission: he doesn’t want to be mocked and killed by the Ninevites. He doesn’t want to fail in his mission, but even more he doesn’t want to succeed. He does not want the Ninevites to respond favorably to the message and turn to God and experience God’s mercy, so instead of going east to Nineveh, he bolts west to Spain, the Hawaii of his day, he boards a ship, goes down into his cabin, and falls asleep. He ends up drifting into great storm. The sailors cast lots to see who is responsible for the storm, and the lots fall on Jonah. Jonah suggests they throw him into the sea to quell the storm. Reluctantly, the sailors do so. The raging sea grows calm.
The LORD provides a huge fish (Jonah 1:17) to swallow Jonah and Jonah is in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
We read in (Jonah 2:1) that in his distress Jonah begin calling out to the LORD. From the deep and the realm of the dead he begins to cry out to God for help.
In verse 5 we read: “The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me, seaweed was wrapped around my head.”
We read in verses7-8: “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you in your holy temple.
Then we read in Chapter 3: 1-6:
1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
3 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. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.
Chapter 3 begins with the words: “Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.’ ”

When Jonah was called the first time to go to the great city of Nineveh and to preach against it, as we saw, Jonah bolted the other way. Then after being thrown overboard and then after being swallowed by that great fish, the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. He is told second time to “go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I gave you.’

As we look at the book of Jonah, and as we look at the Scriptures at large, we see that God calls us on a mission. Jesus’ last words to his disciples were:
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
A major focus for many of us who live in a place like Vancouver and especially for those of us who are part of generation X or generation Y, also called the millennials, i.e., roughly speaking people who are 40 somethingish and younger, is to experience the cool “sensations” that come from mountain biking, rock climbing, and snowboarding. And there is nothing wrong with these things. I personally love being outdoors and sport. But part of what the story of Jonah tells us, part of what the entire Scripture tells us, is that we were made for something that’s bigger than simply “cool personal experiences”—whether in the outdoors, through music or art or entertainment or travel to exotic places which are all good things. But, we were made to take part in a mission from God of bringing his love and justice to the world--something bigger than ourselves.
Whether you know it or not, if your life becomes connected to God you will have something for which to give your life. Look at every person who drew near to God in Scripture: Abraham, Sarah, Joseph, Esther, Mary, John. God invited each of them to participate in a mission that was bigger than themselves to bring God’s light and love to the world, something worth giving their lives for. And we see in the book of Jonah that God gives his reluctant, rebellious prophet Jonah a mission bigger than himself—a call to go and preach to the people of Nineveh, one of the great cities of his day.
We see in the story of Jonah that God prepares Jonah for his life mission by allowing him to inhabit the belly of a great fish for three days and three nights. God allows Jonah to go to sink to the very heart of the sea (verse 6), literally the place of sheol, the place of the dead, and then to be swallowed by the great sea monster – that is to suffer – to prepare him for his life mission.
What are some areas in Jonah’s life that need to be transformed?
Jonah himself in the belly of the whale acknowledges that he needs to experience change.
In chapter 2, verse 8, Jonah says, Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit God’s love for them. The Hebrew word for “love” is the word hesed, which can be translated loyal love or grace. Jonah in saying “those who cling to worthless idols” forfeit the grace of God that could be theirs. Jonah here is really confessing here his own idolatries.
What were Jonah's idols?
One of Jonah's idols was professional success.
As I said a couple of weeks ago, Jonah was a prophet who was afraid of professional failure. God was calling Jonah to walk into one of the most dangerous cities of the world and to call the people to get on their knees and humble themselves before God. It would have been like asking a Jewish rabbi during World War II to go and preach to Hitler. The most likely outcome: Jonah is either mocked or killed. A prophet or a preacher does not want to go to a place where they are almost certain to fail professionally.
One of the places where many of us need to experience transformation is in our need, our vain selfish need, to succeed professionally. Now of course we can be motivated by noble reasons to succeed. We can be motivated to succeed to contribute to the world, to develop and fully use our talents and opportunities. But we can also be motivated to succeed professionally for vain or superficial reasons. We can be motivated to succeed so that we will become personally financially prosperous or to achieve validation in our own eyes or respect in the eyes of our parents or someone is important to us.
Nathan Hatch, the president of Wake Forest University, admitted what educators have seen for years. A disproportionate number of adults have been trying to cram into the fields of finance consulting, corporate law, and specialized medicine because of the high salaries and the aura of success that these professions now bring. “Students were doing so with little reference to the larger questions of meaning and purpose,” said Hatch. That is, they chose professions, not in answer to the question “what job helps people to flourish?” but “what job will help me to flourish?” As a result there is a high degree of frustration expressed over unfulfilling work.
There is something about suffering, something spending time in the belly of the whale, that gives us perspective and frees us of our vain and selfish need to succeed professionally.
Steve Jobs the founder of Apple who recently died said:


When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
He then of course contracted pancreatic cancer and said:
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
And Jonah was in the belly of that great fish and he realized that his utter nakedness—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure –all of the professional idols to which he was clinging, fall away in the face of his death, leaving only what is truly important: God’s call to bring light and love to the world.
As we see in the story, Jonah was afraid of professional failure – of being mocked, of being killed. Spending three days in the belly of a great fish freed him from his fear of failure. It at least healed him enough… so that when the fish vomited him up on the beach and God called him to go preach to Nineveh, he was willing to do so.
A second reason that Jonah was reluctant to preach to the Ninevites was not that he was only afraid of failure, but he was also afraid of success. The Ninevites, the people of Assyria, were, as I said, the arch enemies of Israel. They were a cruel and violent people. The empire was already demanding a tax tribute from Israel, a kind of international protection money. The Ninevites were these violent, murderous people who showed off their violent prowess by using the skulls of their enemies as decorations in their homes.
Jonah hated the Ninevites. He felt racially, culturally, and morally superior to the Ninevites. Part of the reason that Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh is that Nineveh was full of Ninevites, people of a different race, different culture, different value system; people who value violence over compassion, power over mercy.
In Jonah 2:8 he refers to his idols.
One of Jonah's idols was professional success.
Another idol he had was his race and cultural identity.
In order for Jonah to be freed of his idol of race cultural identity, from his superiority complex, he himself needed to experience the radical mercy of God.
When Jonah runs from God, is tossed into the heart of the raging sea by the sailors and then is miraculously rescued by that great fish, he realizes in the belly of the great fish that while the Ninevites were violent murderers he is also a sinner. He has been running away from God’s call on his life to bring God's light and love to the world. He was racist. He had a superiority complex and God had been merciful to him by rescuing him with this fish, so he figures somewhere in that fish’s digestive tract “God has been merciful to me for my running from him, from my racism, why couldn’t God be merciful to the Ninevites for their violent and murderous ways?” and he’s willing to go. (and Jonah BTW was partially, not completely, healed, as we will see in two coming weeks… But healed enough to go to Nineveh.)
When we spend time in the belly of the whale, when we experience suffering and then the mercy of God in the midst of our suffering, we will, among other things, become more humble, more compassionate, and more loving, and therefore less racist, less classist, less sexist.
It is a hard thing for us to admit that from the time we were little children there is a part of us that finds it difficult to live with ourselves the way we are, and so we need to make ourselves feel better by thinking of ourselves as superior to at least some of the people on the planet-- kids can be kind, kids can also be cruel to their peers, putting them down. It's hard for us to admit this, but from the time we were little we have had the psychological need to look down on someone. And all of us do this to some degree. In Jonah we see this prophet who feels better about himself as he sees himself as racially and culturally and morally superior to the Ninevites.
But, looking down on others because of your race or their race is just one way to make you feel better about yourself. If you are not particularly racist, you may feel better than people who are obviously racist (that racist redneck). If you are well-to-do, you may look down on people who are poor and see them as being lazy and irresponsible. If you are poor, you may look down on people who are rich and see them as arrogant and oppressive. If you are liberal, you may look down on people who are conservative. If you are conservative, you may look down on people who are liberal. If you are educated and cultured, you may look down on people who are into popular culture. If you are into popular culture, you may look down on people who are into high culture as snobs.
As Canadians we’re likely too polite to say it out loud, but each of us here probably looks down on someone or on a particular group of people.
And when we look down on a person, we can justify, if not putting them down outright, at least quietly despising them or ignoring them.
The Bible says that when we realize our true condition as spiritual failures before God and receive the undeserved favour of God or grace, we can be healed of our racism, of our classism, our sexism, our sense of superiority, whatever form that may take, when we realize, like Jonah, that the only reason that we have been received by God is because of his sheer mercy and grace, we will deeply humbled and healed of our any sense of superiority we might we have..
Sometimes God comes to us through a storm and allows us to spend time in the belly of the whale, a place of darkness, a place of suffering, a place with seaweed wrapped around our head, so that we recognize God’s extraordinary grace in delivering us. And in the belly of the fish we recognize his grace and we can be healed of our need to succeed for selfish reasons and of our attitudes of superiority.
Let me clarify. God may allow you to go through some kind of suffering, perhaps through no direct fault of your own, like the sailors on board who suffered through the storm because of Jonah’s disobedience. You too may suffer as a kind of innocent bystander because of someone else’s sin or just because of just the radioactivity of sin in the world.
The question is: How will you respond to suffering? Will you allow suffering to humble you and awaken you afresh to God’s grace? Or will you allow your suffering to make you bitter? Will you allow your suffering to make you a deeper person? Or will you allow suffering to make you a more superficial person by denying your suffering and trying to mask it with an addiction? Will you allow your suffering to make you more sympathetic of to the suffering of others, to make you turn inward and become self-absorbed? Will you make your suffering prepare you for you for your life mission, or disqualify you?
Sometimes when God wants to prepare us for our life mission, he allows us to go through suffering so we go on our mission to bring God’s light and love to the world humbly, without a sense that we are the Saviour, just someone who re-presents him. As God allows us to be humbled, don’t go with the sense that we are doing this world a big favour; so that we don’t go on our mission with a patronizing, paternalistic attitude, but so that we go humbly, just as one beggar telling another beggar where we found bread.
God is calls us to something bigger than ourselves and he prepares us through the belly of the whale. Even if suffering, as was true in Jonah’s case, comes from our failure, God can prepare us by allowing us to become humble through failure and more dependent.
The word of the LORD comes to Jonah a second time telling him to preach to the people of Nineveh. God had asked Jonah already to preach to the people of Nineveh and Jonah said no and ran the other way. He boarded a boat and heads for Spain, the Hawaii of his day, and sails into a storm, almost drowns at sea, but God saved him with a great fish and gives him a second chance. And God asks him again to go to Nineveh.
A word caution here. There are times when it seems that God does not give everyone a second chance, but there are times when we read of people in the Bible who disobey him and the door is closed. But, the over-riding nature of God is to give people second, third, fourth chances. The Bible tells us in Psalm 103 that God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. I am not encouraging us to presume on the patience and grace of God. It is dangerous to ever willfully disobey God, but if we have disobeyed him and wondered about God’s will for our life, we can take hope in the Jonah story because God forgives him for disobeying his call to Nineveh the first time, and he gives him a second chance through this failure. As I said, when Jonah sailed into that storm, and was then thrown into the heart of a raging sea, and miraculously saved as God provided a great fish to swallow him, Jonah recognizes that he has been running from God. He realized that he too was a sinner who had received the mercy of God. And if he had received the mercy of God for running from God, for not being willing to preach to the Ninevites because of his racism and sense of cultural superiority toward them, he figured, “Well, then God can be merciful and compassionate toward the people of Nineveh in spite of their violence.”
And it may well be that part of the way that God prepares us for our life mission is by giving us a new sense of God’s favour by forgiving us of our past failure. If we have chosen to disobey, there is something about failure and grace that can prepare us for God’s mission.
When I was in seminary in Boston, I was able to get to know a pastor of a nearby church. This pastor in years gone by had a reputation for being gifted, but rather pretentious and arrogant. This person went on to become president of a very well-known Christian organization. Shortly after becoming president, it was disclosed that he had a brief sexual affair and was forced to resign.
It was some years after this that I got to know this man. One day over breakfast with him outside of Boston, I said, “You seem really capable and confident. Is there anything you are afraid of?” And he said, “You are looking at a man who destroyed the ministry opportunity that God gave him. He had no-one to blame, but himself. But after I had sinned and God in his grace allowed me to come back to him and receive his forgiveness and after some time away from ministry, God allowed me to enter into his work again. I have a deep, deep, deep sense of tenderness and gratitude. And I fear that I will lose that one day.”
I didn’t know this man before his failure. I believe that his ministry, while less well-known now than before his fall, is humbler, deeper and more powerful than ever before.
George Verwer, a respected missions leader and the founder of a worldwide mission called Operation Mobilization, who spoke here a some years ago at Tenth, has said that God can use failure as a backdoor to real success.
While my failures, by God’s mercy, have not been as dramatic as my friend’s in New England, there have been times when my vision has been blurred and when I have been vulnerable and tempted and experienced failure. Some years ago there was a season when I questioned whether I really had the character to be a minister of the Gospel. I went to see an old man who had the reputation of being very wise and very candid. I said to him very frankly, “In my past there have been some boundary violations.” I was very explicit about this. I said, “I can see myself working for a corporation and pursuing a career in journalism as my father did, and given my theological framework, I don’t see working for a corporation or in the media as being any way inferior to being a church minister.” This wise person said, “It may be that your life is prophetic in some way and it may be that you are called to pastor a church where people have failed in some way but are welcome. A pastor for those who are broken will find healing. It may be that God will use your past to prepare your way for your future.”
This may be true in your unique call in your life, as well. Through your weakness or vulnerability, or even maybe through the failure, or maybe just because of some suffering you’ve faced may become the pipeline that God uses to bring his life and love to the world.
Even when you feel like you failed, or have been crushed by life circumstances, or as good as dead – in the belly of a whale… God has a way of coming to us in raising us from the dead as he did for Jonah. See Jonah was not only an instrument of God's life, he was a recipient of God's life and love as well. And God wants to use you not only as an instrument of his life in love in the world, but wants you to be a recipient of his life. So if you feel like you failed, feel like you have died in some way, God can raise you from the dead.
God is in that business. When Jesus was asked by the Pharisees to give them a sign that he was the unique son of God, Jesus said, “The only sign you'll get is the sign of Jonah. I will die and three days later God will raise me from the dead.” God is in the business of taking that which is dead, and lifeless and considered worthless to the world and raising it to new life and to new purpose.
If you are a kind of helicopter parent simply fretting over how things are going for a family member or loved one, know that he can use that person suffering and even their failures and redeem them for his purposes.
And God can use your failure or our sufferings to prepare you for some new life and new purpose, so we more fully radiate his light and love in the world.
The God of Jonah saved Jonah, the God who raised Jesus from the dead, can take the broken glass of your life, the broken pieces of clay and make it into a beautiful mosaic for the world.
Will you let him do that?

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Forgiving Others at Work(2011Sep 18)

Series: Thank God It’s Monday! M3 11 09 18
Speakers: Ken Shigematsu and David Bentall
Title: Forgiving Others at Work
Text: Colossians 3:13
13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
BIG IDEA: When we realize that we have been forgiven by Christ, we can be people who forgive others in our workplace.
(Connections Dinner announcement with slide)
Once in a while I am asked by someone who is considering entering vocational Christian ministry, or someone who is just curious, what it is like to work as a pastor?
I always say that being a pastor is like playing a contact sport. If you are called to it, it is the greatest thing. It can be fun and fulfilling, but you are also going to get hurt. You might notice that sometimes I walk with a bit of a limp. I might say, “I was driving through the paint trying to get to basket to the hoop, I drew lots of contact... getting hit, falling to the floor. Several times I sustained torn ankle ligaments.” Or I may say, “Look at my nose. It is crooked.” In Grade 10… I was playing quarterback, got hit hard and my helmet protective bar went right through my nose.
Pastoring is great, but like basketball or football, you are going to get hurt.
I would say the same thing about work, in general. Work is great. Work is a gift from God, first given to Adam and Eve before the curses of sin and their radioactive effects of sin came into the world. But when Adam and Eve did sin and fall away from God, as we see in the book of Genesis, everything in the world, even work, was compromised by the radioactive effects of sin. It became harder to farm the ground. Thorns and thistles started to grow. We find that sin and its effects pollute our work: computer servers crash, we get SPAM, there is office politics, gossip, we may get looked for a promotion, we may experience betrayal at work.
Studs Terkel, in his book Working, wrote in the introduction: “This book, being about work, is by its very nature about violence---to the spirit, as well as the body.” And though his book Working written in the 70s is somewhat dated, many people today experience work as being violent to their mind, body, and spirit. If you pursue a working life, whether in a business, school, hospital or even some kind of church or Christian organization, you are going to get hurt somewhere along the way.
When we are hurt, it is good to acknowledge our anger, to grieve and at times be willing to confront the person who hurt us, but we are also called to walk the road of forgiving others.
Those of us who belong to Christ have been given unique, powerful resources to forgive others. As we read about Jesus and his ministries in the gospels, we see that he faces increasingly threatening attacks and ultimately is crucified on the Roman cross. He is killed by human beings and yet, in spite of our unjust judgment of him, Jesus absorbs our sin and evil without passing them on. We are called to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.
In Colossians 3:13:
13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
It is out of the experience of being forgiven by Christ that we ourselves are forgiven and we are to forgive others.

At this time I am going to invite David Bentall to come and speak.
David and his wife Alison worship with us from time and time at our third service. If his name rings a bell, it is because his family company, as he will share, built the Bentall high rises which are in the heart of the financial district here in Vancouver. They also built what is now called Rogers Arena, the home for our Canucks.
He will be sharing more of his work and life experience so without any further delay let me invite David forward.
David Bentall:
As Ken mentioned, work is a contact sport, and people can get badly hurt on the job. Not the usual physical kind of injury, but the emotional, relational kind of hurt. Unfortunately, I have often been hurt in sport, as well as at work.
When I attended Magee High School, and then again while I was at UBC, I had the extraordinary privilege of playing on two championship rugby teams. I know, from first- hand experience, rugby is certainly a contact sport. With the Rugby World Cup now on, some of you may have already been reminded of how physical a game it is. A lot of people think that those of us who play the game are actually crazy.
During my many years playing the game, I broke my nose five times. All of our kids think it's pretty funny that this happened repeatedly. However, I have explained to them that I actually never broke my nose, but rather it was other people who broke my nose. Regardless, it really hurt. While touring in Japan, I received 7 stitches to close a gash in my forehead, and 7 more to patch up a cut above my right eye. During my playing career, I also suffered a separated shoulder, and a torn medial collateral ligament, that put me in a cast from my ankle to my hip. By most rugby players standards, I was relatively injury free.
However, in my work experience, I have been hurt much worse than anything that ever happened to me on the rugby pitch. Please permit me to explain.
I will share two stories from my life to illustrate this: one from our family company and the other from my experience working with the Olympic bid committee.
My grandfather owned, and for 40 years was president of Dominion Construction. The firm was once referred to in a magazine article as “the company that built Vancouver”. My dad worked for the firm for 50 years, and was the driving force behind the development of The Bentall Center, in downtown. The idea that I might follow them, and work in the family business was first discussed when I was in grade 5. Dad came into the den, and told me to turn off the TV and to do my homework. I said, “Dad, I'm watching Casper the friendly ghost. Leave me alone.” My dad didn't threaten to spank me, or to take away my allowance. Instead he simply said, “Son, turn off the TV, you can't be president unless you do your homework.” Beginning that day it was just assumed that I would spend my working life with our company.
For four decades my dad worked closely with my uncle Bob in the business. Sadly, in the end, they had a very bitter falling out. I was caught squarely in the middle of the crossfire. As a result, both my dad and I found ourselves involuntarily on the outside, looking in. It was a tragically painful experience for my dad, and a traumatic one for me.
After completing a degree in urban economics, I had joined the family firm straight out of university. I then worked in virtually every division of the company, and in essentially every geographic region. Over the next 10 years, I worked hard preparing to succeed my uncle as president. Then, all hell broke loose, to put it bluntly! I felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me. My career with our company was arbitrarily cut short, and the financial picture for our family was permanently altered in a very negative way.
A business executive who is very close to the situation watched with interest, as I was surgically removed from our family enterprise. Seven years later when we met for the first time, he explained that he'd been looking forward to meeting me for a long time. I asked him why. He said that he was there when they were plotting everything that they did to me. He said that I must be a very special person, and my faith must be very special, because I'm the only person he knows who would not have committed suicide based on what happened.
I don't think I'm special, nor do I think my faith is special. However, had it not been for God's sustaining strength, I think I might not have made it through. During this horrifically painful time, my career, my life my identity and my self-esteem were in tatters. I often felt despair over what was going on. No matter what I did, I seemed powerless to fix the situation. Like an animal caught in a trap, the more I tried to wriggle free, the worse the jaws of futility tightened around me.
However, during this time, God's presence in my life made a significant difference. In spite of the bleak circumstances, I never lost hope. I had trusted God with my life, and I knew, somehow, someday, God would deliver me from the pain, and that there would come a better day. In addition, as I asked God to show me where I had gone wrong, I learned a very powerful lesson.
When I was born, I think God blessed me with a good mind. A mind capable of critical thinking. This was helpful for me, as it is for any leader, because a critical mind is necessary to enable us to make good decisions. However, what I discovered during this challenging time was that right beside a critical mind, lives a critical spirit.
Unfortunately, as a young man, I was so confident in my own opinions, that I became a harsh critic of those around me, and in particular my uncle, who was our company president. No wonder the company leadership decided they needed to get rid of a loose cannon like me. Bentall Real Estate Services has over 1000 employees across North America, with over $17 billion in assets under administration. I aspired to lead that enterprise, and in fact, I would have given my life for the place. However, because of my critical spirit, I forfeited my opportunity
Clearly, I am still disappointed that I made a mess of things. However, I'm grateful that God helped me to learn from the experience. Rather than blaming those who radically altered my career, God helped me to realize that I needed to go and ask them for their forgiveness.
As CS Lewis wryly observed, “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.”
He was right. Forgiveness is not easy, because In order to forgive we need to let go of stuff. This may include letting go of our rights, or maybe our need to be right. In some circumstances we may need to let go of our desire for pay back, or revenge. One of my mentors, who I worked for in Toronto, was an advocate of finding ways to “get” those who had crossed him. He was fond of saying: Don’t get mad, just get even. I suppose, in a way, this may be an effective strategy for dealing with anger….but it’s not God’s way.
Here are some things I learned from this painful experience:

1) We ought to be forgiving towards others, in light of our own failings. In other words, we should forgive, because we ourselves are in need of forgiveness.
We are reminded of this every time we say the Lord’s prayer for we are asking God to… “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors “ (Matthew 6:12).
2) We should abandon trying to figure everything out. We don’t know what the future holds, and so rather than trying to imagine how God will bring justice, we should trust our Heavenly Father for our circumstances. In the words of Proverbs Chapter 3 ( verses 5&6 ) we are invited to trust God “with our whole heart, and lean not on our own understanding.” In essence, we should quit trying to be God, and let Him look after things.
3) Finally, we would do well to focus on how we need to change and grow, rather than focusing on other people’s faults. Put another way, we should focus on our own imperfections as our first priority. Jesus stated this bluntly when he asked the question: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye, and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? “ ( Matthew 7: 3) Frankly, I think most of us assume that the other person is the one with the plank, and so we often fail to honestly examine our own failings and shortcomings.

Instead of holding on to our hurts, God wants us to place them at His feet, and let go of the wrongs that have been done to us. In short, to forgive. Then He wants us to trust Him to bring justice, in His own way, and in His own time. Finally, he wants us to focus on our own imperfections and seek to become more loving…… “better people, instead of bitter people.”
I think Abraham Lincoln must have understood much of this, because his response to his enemies was remarkable. Apparently, during his presidency, when perhaps half of the population of the country disagreed with his leadership, he received a lot of hate mail. In response, he wrote a letter of rebuttal to every critic. He then put each letter in the top drawer of his desk, never to be mailed. Likely this was cathartic. But more importantly, this legendary leader didn’t lash out in anger, instead he let things go!
(I assume that he was trusting God, in prayer, to deal with things in His own way, in His own time. )
As I have endeavoured to walk the path of forgiveness, I have been freed from bitterness. In addition, much to my amazement, God has taken all the pain and disappointment in my career, and is now allowing me to use these experiences to help others. Over the past 10 years, it has been my privilege to assist well over 50 other families in business, as they seek to manage the interface between business and family. I also routinely teach workshops and courses on the subject. In a sense, God has redeemed all those seemingly lost years, and as a result, I have been prepared to serve others
As I have explained, my pain and disappointment were almost more than a person could bear. However, others have had much more difficult challenges than I, and yet have been able to forgive.
Consider for a moment, Miroslav Volf. He is a theologian who teaches at Yale Divinity School. His thinking about love and forgiveness was forged in the crucible of Serbian and Croatian violence in his country of origin. His parents modeled for him, and for all of us, what forgiveness looks like, when they had to come to terms with the death of his sibling. At age 6, Miroslav’s little brother was killed, apparently by the carelessness of a Croatian soldier who was playing with him. He states….My parents “ just forgave him. Everything in you cries for justice, for revenge, yet somehow, in the deep recesses of your soul, a soul that was shaped by what God has done for us, you have the strength to forgive.”
He then goes on to say: “If I say I forgive you, I have implicitly said that you have done something wrong to me. But what forgiveness is, at its heart, is both saying that justice has been violated, and…” yet…”I release the offender from what the justice would demand to be done.”
No matter what challenges we may face at work, surely it is less difficult to forgive than the death of a child. I have not suffered like this, and I pray that I never will. However, I did have another challenging work experience after leaving the family business, which called on me to learn again the hard lessons of forgiveness.
In 1998, I received a phone call from the Chair of the 2010 Olympic bid committee, Arthur Griffiths. I first got to know Arthur when we were building GM Place ( now Rogers Arena ) for his company. Arthur asked if I could assist him in working on the domestic bid for the Olympics. Having just left the family business, I was on sabbatical, and therefore had the time to help out. Initially, there were just four of us working on this; Johnny Johnson, Bruce MacMillan, Arthur and myself. It was my privilege to be responsible for all the venue planning and budgeting. It was great fun to dream about where we should have each of the events, and my background in real estate and construction enabled me to pull together preliminary plans and estimates for all of the new building that would be required.
As we prepared to make a presentation to the Canadian Olympic Association, we were faced with stiff competition from the cities of Calgary and Québec. Calgary had already hosted the games once before, and therefore had experience and a solid track record. The city of Québec, was a well-known international destination, with a world renowned reputation for the arts and culture. These were important factors the IOC traditionally considered in the selection process.
In order to win the support of the COA, we needed to secure the majority of their 76 voting delegates. Along with Johnny Johnson, I volunteered, with no remuneration, to crisscross the country making presentations to various sport organizations, each of whom had a vote. In addition to the winter sports, we met with numerous other groups, including representatives for baseball, gymnastics, track and field, etc. It was an exhilarating time, and although I was originally quite sceptical, I gradually became more convinced that Arthur's dream might actually be achievable.
When the big day came, to present our bid in person, Glen Clark, our premier, and Ian Waddell, our Minister of tourism, travelled with us to Toronto to make the pitch. Former Olympians Steve Podborski and Silken Laumann also joined us. My job was to present the heart of our bid, including both the expected costs and revenues. Regardless of whether you're in favour of the Olympics or not, you have to admit it was an honour and a privilege to be at the center of this historic delegation.

On the first ballot, we squeaked by Calgary, by just two votes. Quebec had the most. However, on the second ballot, most of Calgary’s support swung to us. Consequently, we obtained the endorsement of the COA, by a slim majority. In hindsight, I think it is fair to say that those 30 presentations, which I had made as a volunteer, likely had an impact in helping us to get those two decisive votes.

Alison, and our four children sat in the front row, part of the crowd gathered at the Robson Square Media Center, when we received the exciting news. I was euphoric. Having overcome this first major hurdle, we were quite confident that we could ultimately obtain the support of the IOC to bring the2010 games to Vancouver.

Shortly thereafter, Arthur Griffiths recommended to the board of directors, that I be hired to be the CEO of the bid corporation, to lead the international bid. However, because this was a public endeavour, the selection of the CEO needed to be a public process. Consequently, applications were submitted by executives from all across the country, and I was just one of 100 people who applied for the job. The selection committee created a long list of 50, then a shortlist of 12. Finally, five of us were interviewed. I came in second, when they chose someone else for the top job.
Soon, much to my astonishment, Arthur was removed from the board of directors, and someone else was appointed Chair. Johnny Johnson was no longer responsible for sport liaison, and Bruce MacMillan, who had worked full-time for over a year preparing our bid book, was also shunted aside. None of us were asked to be involved in any way, and we were all deeply hurt. In fact, the four of us felt a bit like soldiers who had captured the hill, planted the flag, and then when the reinforcements arrived, they took the flag, and shot us all.
As we sat on the sidelines, nursing our wounds, others took over, and led the initiative which ultimately secured the right to host the games.
As a token of appreciation, when the games were awarded to Vancouver, I received a signed copy of the bid book, sent to me by one of the bid corporation’s vice presidents. The words he scrawled on the inside of my limited-edition copy of the bid book actually stung. They said, “Those of us who know the true story, recognize that we would not have had a chance to even make a bid, had it not been for you and Arthur.”
At first, I was just disappointed to have been left out. However, over time, as I brooded over what had happened, I began to complain about the injustice of it all. I began routinely lamenting my case to anyone and everyone who would listen. One afternoon, my wife Alison jarred me back to reality with a series of questions. David she began:
Did you work on the domestic bid to bring the Olympic Games to Vancouver? Yes I did.
Did you want to win? Yes, of course.
Were you successful? Yes, we were.
Did you also want the international bid to win, so that the games would come to Vancouver? Yes, I did.
When I confessed that of course all of these things had happened, my wife, the sage, then offered the following advice….”Then be thankful, and stop your complaining!”
At the same time that Alison challenged me to make a decision to never complain, she was also asking me to be thankful for the good things that had happened. Of course she was right, this is what I should do. But knowing the right thing to do and being able to do it can be quite a different matter.
Then I remembered Peter Klassen. Peter moved here from Paraguay 46 years ago. I got to know him, because his wife, Berta worked as a housekeeper for our family for over 42 years. When he died a few years ago, I went to his memorial service. His nephew spoke eloquently about Uncle Peter. He reminded us that when Peter came from Paraguay, he had been an accountant. However, when he got to Canada no-one would accept his credentials, and was unable to find work in his profession. The best my dad could do to help, was to offer him a job, pushing a broom, in our millwork shop. For many years Peter worked hard, doing the lowest form of labour available in our company. After about 10 years, he was promoted to forklift operator, a role he occupied for 30 years. When he retired, Peter’s deteriorating eyesight made it harder and harder for him to see, and soon he was unable to read. With that his favourite pastime was gone. Having lost his profession and now his eyesight, Peter of all people, would have had lots to complain about.
After he passed away, his nephew found Peters’ Bible beside his bed. In between a couple of the well-worn pages, he noticed some notes from a sermon written many years earlier. The following words caught his attention. “Never complain. Complaining doesn't make anything better, and it only makes you feel worse. “ Having known Peter for over 4 decades, I can say, along with his nephew, neither of us ever heard Peter complain. He had lots of reasons to be disappointed with his lot in life, but he didn't waste his breath, or our time, telling us about his disappointments.
In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul talks about some of the hard times he faced. He notes that he was shipwrecked three times, beaten with rods, imprisoned, and suffered 39 lashes on several occasions. He doesn’t mention all these things as complaints. Rather, he is pointing out God’s sufficiency in spite of all these hardships.
This is the same Apostle, who, in his letter to the church in Philippi, says he had learned the secret of being content. I believe that what he had discovered, included four of the things he encouraged the Philippians to do. In chapter 4, he says…
1) Rejoice always ( v. 4)
2) Be thankful ( v. 6)
3) Pray about everything ( v. 6)
4) Think about good things… those things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, excellent, etc. ( v.8))
If you don’t think that this is practical or realistic, I would encourage you to think again.
Jim Murphy, the author of Inner Excellence, has spent over 10,000 hours researching the connection between what we think and how we perform. He asserts that it is not possible to worry and be thankful at the same time. No wonder God commands us to be thankful. It’s the perfect antidote to worry. Similarly, I believe that it’s not possible to rejoice and at the same time to harbour bitterness.
Therefore, when, in God’s word, we are exhorted to PRAY, REJOICE AND BE THANKFUL ALWAYS….we are not being offered pious platitudes. Rather, we are being given very practical advice for daily living. This is an inspiring strategy that can be directly applied to dealing with the hurts and disappointments we may encounter at work.
I also love the fact that when God provides divine guidance, He doesn’t just say…don’t do this…but He also offers direction as to what to do instead…Rather than just saying don’t harbour un-forgiveness, God invites us to cultivate a life of prayer and an attitude of thankfulness.
One of my best friends, Dave Phillips, has explained to me that if I do not forgive, I will provide an opportunity for bitterness to grow in my heart. If I hold onto my inner feelings of anger, I may reason that at least I am not letting “them” off the hook too easily. However, one day, I will wake up and realize that the cage that I have made imprisons not the person who hurt me, but rather I will have imprisoned myself. I will have become the prisoner, held captive by my own bitterness. I am not hurting the other person, I am only hurting myself.
I'm so thankful that Dave encouraged me to become a man of forgiveness, and that my wife Alison encouraged me to stop complaining. I'm also thankful that both the Apostle Paul, and my friend Peter Klassen modeled for me how to live this kind of life. Most importantly, I am thankful that God, by His Spirit has enabled me to learn to forgive those who have hurt me in my work experience.
My career didn’t turn out at all like I thought it would, but I am thankful that God, in his grace has given me an amazing new business. Just ask the members of our family….they will tell you, I LOVE MY WORK!
In fact, I say that almost daily….because it is such a privilege to do the work I do teaching and helping others. It’s far more rewarding than building buildings ever was.
When the Olympics came, I was a bit frustrated that I had virtually no tickets to attend any events. In the week prior to the arrival of the torch, I was really tempted to pout. However, by this time, I had over 7 years to practice being thankful, in spite of my circumstances, and so I prayed, and tried to put it out of my mind.
The day before the opening ceremonies, I got an unexpected call from Arthur Griffiths. He had been given two ALL EVENTS PASSES for the games, and he wanted me to have one. As a result, I had the awesome privilege of attending , 17 events during the two weeks of the games. I was even on the slopes when Alex Beladeau won the first Olympic Gold Medal on Canadian soil.
I only had one ticket, so I attended most of the events on my own. I was profoundly thankful, not just to Arthur, but more importantly to God. I didn’t see the tickets as some kind of divine vindication, nor were they necessarily deserved. But in a way, I felt like God had stooped down to kiss me….to let me know He understood my disappointment, and that He was looking out for me.
Now, I don’t want to promise any of you that if you obey God’s word, and walk in the path of forgiveness, that you will be given VIP tickets to attend the Olympics. However, I can promise you, based on my own experience, that if you forgive others, you won’t need to spend your days complaining, imprisoned by your own bitterness. God wants us all to be free. I encourage you to take Him at His word.

Ken:
Is God calling you to forgive someone? Or stop complaining about some hurt in your life. Is God calling you out of prison or least to take a step toward the prison door?
The British author C. S. Lewis realized and made the following note in his journal: “Last week while at prayer I suddenly discovered---or felt as if I did---that I had really forgiven someone I had been trying to forgive for over 30 years. Trying and praying that I might.”
Forgiving others requires patience. Sometimes forgiveness, as Lewis discovered, is something that we only realize in looking back, perhaps after years of struggle. And yet perhaps this morning, (or this evening) God is calling you to take the first step to forgive someone that may have hurt you at work, at school, in your home, or in your childhood.
Reflect on how Christ has forgiven you. Give thanks for it.
Pray that God would help you move toward forgiveness...



Amen.

Saturday, October 01, 2011

Running from God(2011Oct02)

Series: Jonah’s Journey M1 11 10 02
Title: Running from God
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Text: Jonah 1:1-17
BIG IDEA: Running from the call to be a light to the world is hard and God, in his love, sends us a storm to bring us back.
At our home when someone rings the doorbell there is a small TV monitor in the hallway between our kitchen and our dining room that lights up and we can see who is at the door (when I was traveling more—I wanted to create a greater of sense of security for Sakiko).
From time to time usually around dinner time the doorbell rings, I look at the monitor and there is someone there with a clipboard. (Use prop) My first thought is, “This person is part of some political campaign, or someone wanting us to change our gas plan from Fortis to some other energy broker, or with Green peace and wants a donation.” They tend to come right around dinner time (or maybe it just seems that way because I try to be home for dinner.) So as soon as I see someone with a clipboard, there is a part of me that says “I don’t want to answer the door.” So I typically talk to them through the monitor, and think, “Whatever their pitch, I will say ‘actually now is not a good time.’”
Have you ever had that experience? Or if you do not have a monitor in your house or apartment maybe you have caller ID on your phone. You know who is calling and you just don’t want to answer the call from this particular person.
Well, this is how the prophet Jonah felt back in about the year 600 BC when he saw that God was at his door with a clipboard, asking him to go to Nineveh and to call those people to repent; that is, to turn from their violent ways and follow the Living God. Instead of going to the front door and opening it, Jonah, in effect, says to himself, “Now is not a good time,” runs out the back door, through the back yard, into the garage, gets into his car, squeals down the back alley, or goes down to the docks east of Canada Place, and catches a cruise ship.
Now our story may not be as dramatic, but have you ever sensed that God was calling you to be something, or to do something, or to become something, or take a new direction, and you also felt like fleeing from God? When Father Moe who spoke last week felt called to remain a single man and to serve as medical doctor in the jungles of Peru, I wonder if he resisted at all. If you know Jesus Christ, but sense calling you to be more open about your faith in your workplace or school is there are part of you that feels like running the opposite direction? Or perhaps you are considering the possibility of committing your life to Christ, you wonder if you'll be rejected by your family or friends… There's a part of you that wants to have a life of God, but there's also a part of you that wants to run.
At some point we all face the temptation to run from God.
We are beginning a new series today in the book of Jonah. If you have your Bibles, please turn to the book of Jonah, Chapter 1:1-17. Listen to the word of the LORD.

1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.
4 Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)
11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried out to the LORD, “Please, LORD, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, LORD, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.
17 Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
We read in vs. 2 that the word of the LORD came to the prophet Jonah, “Go to the great city Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

Jonah flees from the LORD and heads for Tarshish. He goes down to Joppa where he finds a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he boards the ship and sails for Tarshish to run away from the LORD. God tells Jonah to preach to the great city of Nineveh and Jonah bolts the other way. Jonah is in Israel, Nineveh is east of Israel in the area of modern day Iraq, but Jonah catches a ship west, going to Tarshish which is modern day Spain.

Tarshish was a place, according to 1 Kings 10, full of gold, silver, ivory, monkeys and peacocks. It was a distant, exotic paradise… think of Hawaii.

Jonah bolts to this exotic paradise in Spain, to lie out in the sun, to drink cocktails, and forget God’s call for him to preach to Ninevites. Why? Well, two reasons likely: 1) Because he was afraid of failure. It was unlikely that his preaching mission to Nineveh would be successful. They were a violent, hardened people and it was almost certain in his mind that his preaching would not only be rejected, but that he might be killed. It would be like you're being asked to go on a preaching mission to the Hells Angels. What do you think your chances of success would be?
So one reason that Jonah did not want to go and preach to the Ninevites is because he was afraid of failure. 2) He didn't want to go on to preach to the Ninevites because he was afraid of succeeding – unlikely though this was. If his preaching was successful and he got through to the Ninevites and they turned from their violent ways, he knew that God, being merciful, would spare them from his intended judgment.

So why didn't Jonah want the Ninevites to turn to God and experience God’s grace?

Because he hated the Ninevites. Because the Ninevites were a cruel and savage people, and Israel’s arch enemies. Did you ever see the movie, The Apocalypse Now? The movie is an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s famous book, Heart of Darkness. In the story, Captain Willard played by Martin Sheen is sent up a river by the army to kill one of its own men, Colonel Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando, who has become a savage. As Captain Willard journeys along the river toward Colonel Kurtz’s outpost, he sees literally hundreds of skulls piled along the riverbank. The people of Nineveh would decapitate their enemies and pile them up like basketballs to show off their prowess.

Asking Jonah to preach to the Ninevites was be like asking a Jewish rabbi to go to Berlin during World War II and call Hitler to repent from his sins.

We recently remembered the ten-year anniversary of 9/11. Asking Jonah to preach to the Ninevities. would have been like asking George W. Bush on September 12, 2001 to go unarmed and call Osama Bin Laden to turn from his ways.

Or asking a mouse to preach to a cat.

So Jonah bolts the other way. As we see he rather die, commit suicide than preach to the Ninevities

As was true for Jonah, God calls to us to serve as his light in the world and sometimes we don’t want to serve as his light and we resist. We don’t want to become a light in the world.
Some years ago I visited what’s considered the largest church in the world in Korea. Paul Yonggi Cho has been pastor there. Some years ago, as his ministry was becoming international, he told God, "I will go anywhere to preach the gospel, except Japan." He hated the Japanese with gut-deep loathing because of what Japanese troops had done to the Korean people and to members of Yonggi Cho's own family during WW II. The Japanese were his Ninevites.
Through a combination of a prolonged inner struggle, several direct challenges from others, and finally an urgent and starkly worded invitation, Cho felt called by God to preach in Japan. He went, but he went with bitterness. The first speaking engagement was to a pastor's conference of 1,000 Japanese pastors. Cho stood up to speak, and what came out of his mouth was this: "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you." And then he broke and wept. He was both brimming and desolate with hatred.
At first one, then two, then all 1,000 pastors stood up. One by one they walked up to Yonggi Cho, knelt at his feet and asked forgiveness for what they and their people had done to him and his people. As this went on, God changed Yonggi Cho. The Lord put a single message in his heart and mouth: "I love you. I love you. I love you."
When God calls us to do something we don’t want to do, when he calls us to serve as light in his world, as was true of Jonah and Paul, there will always be a ship ready to take us to take us in a different direction; there will always be a boat ready to take us to Spain. There are times when we want to take that ship and go our own way because we think it will make life easier for us.

For a time, Jonah’s decision to run from God’s plan seemed to make his life easier. He got into a boat, slipped into his cabin and fell sound asleep, dreaming about spending time sun-tanning on the beaches of Spain and drinking cocktails and doing the Macarena. But all would not be well. A storm breaks out at sea and threatens his life and the lives of those around him.

Sometimes on the surface, following God’s will appear difficult, but long-term following God’s will is actually easier than not following God’s will. The Bible tells us that the way of the transgressor is hard (Proverbs 13:15). The way of the sinner is difficult. When we run from God’s plan for our life, at first we may think things are great…that we are free at last. Free from the shackles of God and his ways, but as was true of Jonah in that boat, we may, in fact, be slowly drifting into a storm.

In some cases, this is obvious. I remember seeing Johnny Cash, the country singer, being interviewed by Larry King. Johnny Cash said, “When I was young, I thought illegal drugs were God’s gift to me. They could bring me up when I wanted to go up and down when I wanted to go down. I discovered that drugs were really the devil in disguise.”

And people think drugs will make them feel better, and of course for a while they do. But our brain adjusts to the high the drug brings, so the next time we need just a little bit more of the drug to get the same high. Our brain achieves a certain level of tolerance, and we need more of the drug to get the same high until and find ourselves trapped in an addiction cycle.

I have heard people say, “I have been working really hard and doing a lot of good things. I feel like I deserve a break now and I want to enjoy some internet pornography.” At first it may seem like such a great escape, but people find themselves trapped in a porn addiction and swamped in shame.

There is a cost to walking outside of God’s will…outside of his call to us to be a light to the world. Sometimes it is not necessarily a choice between an obvious sin like drug use or pornography, sometimes a choice somewhere between something good and God’s best for us.

Ignatius of Loyola was convalescing from a cannon ball wound to his leg in the early part of the sixteenth century. While lying in bed bored, he wanted to read romance novels and fantasized about a life of gallantly pursuing a certain woman of the court. He also read biographies of Jesus and the saints and envisioned walking in the footsteps of Christ. In both scenarios he experienced an immediate sense of excitement, but as he envisioned chasing a noble woman of the court, though he had an initial sense of pleasure, he was left feeling restless and unsatisfied. But as he pondered pursuing a pilgrimage with Christ, he felt a sense of enduring joy and peace.

Sometimes choosing something good, but is out God’s will for us, is harder because we simply forfeit the deeper and more enduring joy and peace that comes by responding to God’s call on our lives.

A mentor of mine says, “Obedience is difficult, but disobedience is impossible.” Obedience can be difficult at first, but disobedience over time will prove impossible. If we are a son or daughter of God, running from God’s call to be his light in the world will prove difficult because it runs against the grain of who we are. It is not easy to go against the grain of who we are and we will find ourselves going down.

We read in verse 3 that Jonah went down to Joppa where he found a ship that was bound for the port in Spain. Ajith Fernando, the respected Bible expositor from Sri Lanka, points out that the word “down” is used four times in the King James version. Verse 3 states he went “down to Joppa.” Then he went “down” into the ship. In verse 5 we are told that Jonah had gone “down” into the sides of the ship. Then in 2: 6 Jonah says, “I went ‘down’ to the bottom of the mountains.”

Down, down, down, down.

Fernando believes that the repetition of the word “down” is very significant. The person who wrote Jonah was a literary artist, and in Hebrew when a word is repeated, we do well to pay attention because it likely means that the author is seeking to emphasize something.

To move away from the will of God, to not become a light in the world is to go down. I am not sure that the author of Jonah was using the term “down” as a metaphor, but I do believe that Fernando is right when he says when we go away from his plan to be a light in the world, we are going down.

Going away from God’s plan may look like we are going on a cruise to Spain, to somewhere attractive and exotic. But even if it looks like we are going up, up, up, if we are moving away from the person that God wants us to be, the light he wants you to become, we are really going down, down, down. It’s possible to be going up, up, up as far as the world is concerned but you to be going down, down, down as far as God is concerned.

Conversely, as we see in verse 8, when we follow God’s will for our life, even when it seems like we are going down, down, down, we are going up, up, up.

It is not uncommon to hear a testimony where someone basically says, “My life was really messed up in all kinds of ways. I met God and I became a better person. I had been struggling financially and now my business is prospering or I had been unhealthy and now I am really healthy. I have been healed.” I don’t want to discount those testimonies, but sometimes when we are on the path of God’s will for us, from a worldly perspective it may look like our life is going down, down, down. But in God’s economy our life is going up, up, up.

If you were here two weeks ago, you would have heard David Bentall talk about how as a younger man he aspired to become the president of his family’s construction company, a company which now has some 17 billion dollars in assets. But through a painful experience of betrayal he found himself on the outside of his family’s company looking in. He also talked about how he had aspired to be the CEO of the Vancouver/Whistler bid corporation and how out of 100 executives who applied for the job, he came in second for that position. He then shared how he is involved in the vocation of teaching families about running a family business effectively but also with integrity and honor, and how he feels like he is in the will of God, how through his work he is able to shine as a light for Christ. In a worldly sense he has taken some steps down in his career, but in the economy of God he has actually gone up.

When my wife Sakiko was in her mid twenties, she committed her life to Christ. At the time she was an editor at Newsweek Magazine. But she felt called to start a not-for-profit publishing company creating Christian books in Japan. From a worldly perspective her career was going down. She took a huge salary cut, but in following God’s will she was really going up, up, up.

I want to offer some “advanced content” to those of you who are longer time followers of Christ.

Ignatius of Loyola the founder of the Jesuits wrote about the 3 degrees of humility.

He says the first-degree of humility, if you are a follower of Christ, is absolute obedience in the time God speaks to you.

And by the way, if you're wanting to be directed by God, the most important foundation is to obey God in the things that are clear. Follow the light that you have in the small things and the big things tend to take care of themselves.

This would be a different message, but finding the will of God is not like trying to hit a 97-mile-an-hour fastball from Mariano Rivera… Something it just whizzes by you as you are rubbing your nose. If you are open to God in the small areas of your life, he will be guiding you even when you don't know.

Loyola says the second degree of humility comes into play when you have a choice between poverty and riches, honor and dishonor, a long life and short life: he says in the face of such possibilities we should not be leaning strongly towards one or the other, but be differentiated, indifferent, and open-handed.

He says the third degree of humility, which I'm nowhere close to, says that if you are faced with poverty and riches, honor and dishonor, a long life and short life we ought to lean toward poverty, dishonor and a short life – because that was the way of Christ.

In Jesus we saw as he hung on a cross it looked like he was going down, down, down, but he was redeeming the world… and in God’s eyes going up, up, up.

The way of God, the way of Kingdom is often upside down if we compare it to ways of the world.


When we run away from God, it is hard because we are going down, and it is hard because God will eventually come after us. God eventually came after Jonah through the storm and he will come after us if we depart from him.

How does he come back after Jonah?

He comes to him through a storm.

He comes to him through the sailors who wake him up.

He comes to him as the sailors identify him through the casting of lots.

He comes to him through the waves.

He comes to him through the whale.

He comes through 5 different ways.

There is a man I’ll call Steve. Steve loved fishing and fishing is wonderful, a gift from God. Jesus helped his students fish. But for Steve, though he believed in God, his fishing was coming between him and God. There were times when he was out fishing he thought, “As long as I'm fishing I don't need God.” Then we sense God moving toward him.

“It started five years ago with my annual (fly) fishing trip….

This yearly pilgrimage has always been for me a time of consummate pleasure, a banquet of beauty with deep friendship and adventure. Then it all began to unravel. I had scheduled a few days on the Frying Pan River in Colorado in late May. The fishing there is legendary, and recent reports had been phenomenal. But as a friend and I drove up to the river, it began to rain. Not to worry, I thought. Late spring often brings rain. It’ll blow over in an hour or two. As we climbed into the mountains, the rain turned into a snowstorm (this is in May) that lasted the entire trip.

I began to play chess with God. The following year, I planned our trip for July to eliminate all possibility of snow. I booked several days at a private ranch that caters to fly fisherman, with a guide to take us out to the upper Rio Grande. The night before we were to leave, I received a call telling me that no, it had not snowed, but thunderstorms had created mudslides and the fishing was impossible.

I sensed that God had made a countermove, and that my king was in danger. Grabbing my phone book, I found the number of another guide on a different river and called him. Yes, the fishing was fabulous and yes he could take us out tomorrow. I hung up the phone with a smile. Your move, God. When we arrived early the next morning, the fellow told us sadly, ‘It’s the strangest thing, but they opened the dam last night and the river’s flooded.’

The next year after that it was the drought; the year after that we still didn’t know what happened. High in the meadows of the Eastern Sierra, the fish seemed to vanish from the San Joaquin. I was losing the game. But I hadn’t been cornered; not yet.

Last year I was invited to a place near Bend, Oregon. It is a place very dear to me, full of memories from childhood. The Deschutes River flows from there, and I was looking forward to some great time on the water with my new fly rod. I made what I felt would be my winning move. A friend had arranged access for me to a private stretch of the Deschutes, a ranch visited each year by only a handful of people. The caretaker was an old master fly fisherman. When the owner of the shop in town learned where I was headed, he looked around furtively, leaned across the counter and whispered, ‘Mister, that may be the best one hundred yards of fishing in the North America.’ Something smiled in my heart and said “check.”

Old Bill was a marvelous fisherman, and as we walked down to the water, he realized, “I’m thinking…. let’s see…. You’re the first guy to fish here since October, 6 months ago…’ I thought, this is going to be incredible…’ You know what’s coming next. Nothing. We caught nothing. Bill had a funny look on his face. ‘John’ he said, people come from all over the world to fish this ranch. I’ve never had a day like this… ever. Feeling for all the world like Jonah, I said, ‘Bill, this is not about you. This fishing will be great after I’m gone. Check mate.’”

Fishing for John had become his god and God in his love came after him.

When God sends a storm there is love beneath the waves. The storm may feel violent as did for Jonah and John… It may seem that God is angry, but there is love beneath the waves. He sends a storm to draw us to him because he knows if we don’t come to him in our lifetime, not only will we miss the chance of lifetime to be his light in the world, but we miss the joy of an eternity with him.

Sometimes, as he did for Jonah, God sends storms into our lives so that he will fulfill his purpose for us to be a light in the world.

Has God ever allowed a storm in your life to draw you to him and to make you a light in the world? Can you see love beneath the waves?

It is hard to run from God because it goes against the very grain of our being. Even when running away may seem like it is up, up, up, but we are going down, down, down. The great irony is that when we run from God to be free, we are never free without him. When we are finally willing to give ourselves up to God like Jonah, to experience checkmate, when we are willing to cast ourselves in the sea for God in that moment of abandon, when all is lost, we are free.

The reason we can cast our self in utter abandon before God is because God in Jesus Christ allowed himself to be thrown into the sea for us so that we might be saved, so that our sins might be forgiven. 2000 years ago he allowed himself to enter into the storm of the cross so we could be free from our sins and forgiven.

When we know that, we can cast ourselves in utter abandon into the ocean of God’s purposes for us and become his light in the world.

Pray:

(God can use our disobedience. God is a redeemer, as he did with Jonah to draw the sailors to him, but in a much fuller way if we are fully on board with him.)