Best of Blogs #3

I'm going to go out of order and go with this post, originally from 4/28/08. It's called "Dreaming of Tarshish."

Sometimes I wonder what is the point of the story of Jonah. He didn't do what God asked him to. He ran away. He got swallowed by a fish, prayed, and ended up going to Nineveh. And if that was it, great story. Jonah's heart was changed.

But that's not it. Jonah went reluctantly and was really mad when God spared Nineveh. His heart wasn't changed at all. So what do we really learn? I don't think anybody really knows, that's why in children's versions of the story the ending is usually cut off. And the thing is, Jonah wrote the book himself. If he wanted to make himself look good, he could have made it look like he really turned a corner. I think there was a stubborn part of him that wanted people to know he wasn't happy about it.

As I hid in a dark classroom today, curled up in the fetal position and contemplating what life would be like if I went home and Dan and I packed up and just left today without telling anyone we were leaving, I thought about Jonah.

A couple of months ago I was given the option to get rid of my favorite part of my job in exchange for more work that I didn't want to do, with no raise...or to not have a job anymore. Since not having a job wasn't really an option, I accepted it...but about as reluctantly as Jonah went to Nineveh.

This week the transition takes place, and I officially start my new position. I'm pretty sure that the next person who says, "congratulations on your promotion" is going to get smacked. More work + same pay + less enjoyable work = demotion. FYI.

For a while I resigned to it. I wasn't excited, but I accepted it. But as it becomes a reality, here I am daydreaming of Tarshish. And even though Jonah comes to mind, I wonder...what am I really supposed to learn from his story?