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?”
“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.”
The story of Jonah is one of my favorites in all of the Bible. Not only does a whole city repent and turn to God but Jonah gets swallowed by a fish and gets a gut ride back to Nineveh free of charge. Lots to unpack, but in the story the first chapter is just amazing. It starts out with Jonah hearing a word from God and running, not good at all, but lets move on. He then finds himself in the middle of a storm while running from God. Have you ever been in a place were everything in your life seems to be in turmoil and stormy? Next we find Jonah sleeping. Often times we would like the storm in our lives to go away so we choose to avoid it, crawl into a hole and sleep it away or hope it goes away only to be shaken by other people reminding you of this storm you are in.
You see, Jonah had a call of God on his life as we all do. When we avoid or turn away from following God often times nothing happens at first. Verse 10 says it all, “They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.” This verse is right before Jonah tells the crew to throw him over board….”I give up Lord, I cannot run and fix things without you.” You see, the crew in this story could be your crew, your peeps. When the storm came they all “cried out to his own god”, threw cargo overboard or in today’s world trying to fix a spiritual issue using human things. When Jonah told them they to needed to throw him overboard they tried again to just row back to shore. But in the end Jonah had to leave the safety of the boat and his new found running buddies for things get any better.
Chapter one ends with something no one ever focuses on. Verse 16 tells us that the crew even got saved because of what Jonah did. You see some things in our lives are spiritual storms and can never be quieted by human efforts, just ask Jonah and crew of the boat. It may be time to stop holding on to your human efforts to quiet the storms and give it to God. Only God can quiet those types of storms in our lives. When we finally do this, God even provides a way back to Him that you don’t have to pay for. God may be behind the storm saying “follow me.”
Let It Go 
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