My Ship Bound for Tarshish

January 2011 was not a typical January. It began in paradise and quickly turned the corner to the harshest reality of life.   In the midst of this, I’ve been challenged. Lord willing this will not be just another one of those challenges that I look at with wavering conviction knowing that it’s just what I need while reviewing a file drawer full of other challenges that were never quite completed but only embraced and released.

I am a part of a small writers group. In January we had our first meeting of the year, actually our first meeting since October. I had not written in that span of time. I had reasons, good ones. There was all that preparing for Christmas, and I’m sure other things that I can’t seem to recall right now. Then, of course, there was Christmas, which doesn’t take just one day, it eats up the month of December and spills into January. Then there was our trip to Hawaii and all the preparation that went into that, not to mention the recovery from the trip and jet lag.

These things are part of my ship bound for Tarshish. In Jonah 1:3, Jonah is running from God. He was supposed to go to Nineveh and proclaim a message from God, but instead he ran away from the Lord. It seems it was a calculated decision – a decision made while understanding the nature of God – a decision made while knowing God could find him wherever he went. Of course God did find him and things went pretty much as Jonah thought they would, with the exception of how God met with Jonah in such an intimate and individual way. I don’t think Jonah expected that.

God was merciful to Jonah and Nineveh and that night during our meeting, God was merciful to me. He woke me up while I was sleeping below deck. I’m not sure yet, but he may have thrown me into the ocean. At the very least he splashed water on my face.

This brings me back to the harsh reality of life. People die – people you love die. Seasons change whether you like it or not. My mother-in-law died on January 12. Even though she was 84, we didn’t expect it. There is temptation to use my new to-do list that has resulted from her passing as cargo on my ship bound to Tarshish. God isn’t going to let me get away with that.

During our January meeting I was confronted with many things. God was merciful to give me encouragement and correction at the same time, to show me how much I get in my own way and divert from the path that he keeps lighting up for me. The analogy of a tree clad in its autumn array of leaves ready to fall with the tree clinging to the first leaf spoke to me. It’s time to let a leaf or two go. Here’s my first leaf. I want to send it off into the breeze and see where it will go.  It’s time to get off the ship to Tarshish, even if it means swimming in water that I think may be a little over my head.

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