The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:  “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”  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.  Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 
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.”  Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.
~ Jonah 1:1-3, 1:17, 3:1-3a

This week I have approached writing my blog like a petulant child: arms crossed, sullen expression, all the while thinking, “I have nothing to say.”  I whine and procrastinate, and find other things to do before sitting down to write.

However, for all of my foot-dragging, God has yet to let me off the hook of writing it.  No matter how late it gets, I still wind up typing away, putting words on the page.

Which tells me that I need to adjust my attitude.  As we learn from Jonah, when God wants you to say or do something, you really ought to do it the first time.  Otherwise, God will allow you to learn the life lessons necessary to cultivate obedience to Him.

Now, I don’t think I’ve been charged with quite the same level of responsibility that Jonah had, but however small my task may be, I still need to do exactly what God asks of me.  It’s my job as a believer.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.” ~ Psalm 32:8

Today, my house was in desperate need of a tidy-up.  The week had clearly taken its toll, and things were scattered everywhere.  I managed to get just about everything put away without incident, until (you knew there had to be something) the last box.

The last box was big – it was one of those under-the-bed plastic boxes.  A great friend had given it to my son, filled to the brim with hand-me-down Legos.  Since it doesn’t fit under his crib, we cleaned out a drawer and put as many Legos in it as we could for now.  This still left the box pretty full and, with nowhere to put it, I decided to take it to the basement.

Not being very tall, the box pretty much obliterated my view of the stairs as I was going down them.  And as a direct result, I missed the last step.

The Legos and I went crashing down on my rolled ankle like a ton of bricks, with absolutely nothing I could do about it.  And the only prayer I could exclaim was, “Please don’t let anything be broken!” (Seriously, no idea how I would manage on crutches.)  After lying on the landing in a heap for a few minutes, seeing stars, I finally managed to collect myself and everything to get down the stairs.

Fortunately, nothing seems broken.  Strained maybe, and lots of random things hurt (like my quad muscle on the opposite leg), but the ace bandage on my ankle seems to be alleviating most of the pain.

It got me thinking about the lessons God has for us in this life.  Sometimes they can be difficult and sometimes they can be time consuming.  Sometimes it can be hard to see the point in the midst of the lesson.  It’s very tempting to want to skip ahead, to push past all this unnecessary middle stuff, and just get to the point.  But as I learned today, something as simple as skipping one step can have some pretty serious consequences.

Whatever God is trying to teach you in life right now, be patient with both Him and the lesson.  There is a reason you are where you’re at, and why it’s taking so long.  His timing is perfect and His entire goal for your existence is to refine your faith.  So stick with Him.  Every step of the journey is important.

“For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in His dwelling; He will hide me in the shelter of His sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.” ~ Psalm 27:5

My excitement for the day included having a vein removed through a process known as EVLT. For me, it was both a corrective and preventive measure – eliminating some painful varicose veins, while also preventing them from expanding. It’s a relatively short procedure that has you up and walking immediately following it, and I was only away from my house for two hours.

Prior to going to the laser clinic, my job was to put a topical numbing cream on my leg and then wrap the leg in saran wrap. Yes, this is as weird and uncomfortable as it sounds. And, in my opinion, kind of tricky. As a layperson, I wasn’t totally sure I was putting the cream in all the right spots.

For the most part, my guesses paid off (trying to understanding the illustration from the doctor’s office), but there was one area of my leg that I missed. And when the doctor inserted the laser there, it really hurt. The areas that I had covered sufficiently didn’t hurt nearly as much as the areas I missed.

When preparing for something in life, it’s important to prepare as thoroughly as you can. When God asks you to follow certain steps before you do something, there is a reason He’s asking. If you listen to Him and obey His directions, then the challenges you face will be much easier. But if you choose to ignore Him or try to do things your own way, you might find yourself facing the same situation, only it’s a bit more painful than it should have been.

I am thankful the doctor I saw took the extra step to offer me the topical numbing cream, to assist in making the procedure as painless as possible. I wish that I had done a better job putting it on, and thus eliminating some unnecessary pain. If God is giving you specific instructions in your life, you can bet that He is trying to prepare you for things to come, things that He wants to shield you from as much pain as possible.

So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.” ~ Genesis 6:13-14

A few days ago I read an article on the internet about a woman who decided to self-publish an ebook.  She couldn’t get a publisher to back her book, but she really believed in what she had written, so she went ahead and published it on her own.  Now she has sold nearly half a million copies of her book, all because she believed in her story.

After I read that article, my mom and I attended a Mannheim Steamroller concert.  If you listen to Christmas music at all, you’ve probably heard something on the radio by this group.  What surprised me, however, was finding out that when the founder, Chip Davis, went looking for a recording contract to back his album, he couldn’t find one.  So he ended up creating his own label and has produced all of his own music since.  He has gone on to sell more than 40 million albums.

Both of these individuals believed in the strength of their ideas and were willing to strike out on their own, even when everyone else told them it wouldn’t work.

I think the world needs more Christians like who do just that.

Making a go of an idea when no one is showing support is scary.  It really is.  But there are times when God asks us to do something, and finding a human voice to back us up isn’t going to happen.  When God asked Noah to build an ark, I’m sure he balked at first.  His neighbors weren’t building boats.  His boss probably wasn’t keen on the work hours it ate up.  If the internet has existed back then, Noah would have probably been the target of thousands of derisive commenters, lambasting him for his foolish project.

But when the rain and floodwater showed up, I’ll bet Noah was breathing a sigh of relief that he decided to go along with God’s instructions – however crazy they seemed at the time.

If God is asking you to do something, don’t first look around and see who will jump on board with you.  He isn’t asking you to find followers or supporters.  He is asking you to trust Him and do what He asks.  Yes, it may be scary and yes, you may feel like a fool doing whatever it is He wants of you.  But if God has asked you to do something you can be assured of two things: He has a very good reason for doing so and you will be rewarded in the end for being obedient.  And those two reasons alone should be enough to jump in with both feet and commit to what He’s asking.