Designing Jonah

 

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Jonah – a tale of sin and grace. An imaginative story about a guy with an assignment from God (go be a prophet to the Ninevites, warn them about what’s coming up) and all kinds of life lessons to be gleaned in the four weeks of Ginghamsburg’s worship series.

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Now, there’s a fish involved – and little lost-at-sea moment when Jonah disobeys, goes his own way and winds up in the murky darkness of the whale belly. Time to think about himself, God, and what to do with the hour of life left before he disintegrates into intestinal shreds of fish poop.

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My own connection with Jonah isn’t so much about the belly pit. True, I’ve found myself in several major pits along my five decades of life. Physical, emotional and spiritual pits, but I’m not connecting with that today. Today my connection is with the discrepancy between God’s belief about what Jonah was capable of and what Jonah thought Jonah was capable of. They’re at way different ends of the confidence spectrum. I see a guy who doesn’t give himself credit or courage to get a job done. A God-ordained task that came complete with rich God-ordained promises such as Divine presence – and nonDiscriminating grace.

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What if? What if God’s opinion of what you are capable of and your opinion of your abilities don’t match up? What if the days of your lives are most often shrunk down with worry, fear and the swirling doubt around your skills, your qualifications, your position and your authority.

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I don’t think I’ve ever felt qualified for my next steps abeit designing worship for thousands to experience or designing spaces where crowds can connect – it’s never been an “I’ve got this” experience. I doubt. Maybe you do too.

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So maybe you should throw yourself up onto the shore of that next big God dream. The God goal. The God-of-all-glory hairy audacious God gig. And step into the calling that awaits – regardless of how it feels. Maybe you – like me – will see God show up in ways you never thought possible. And we’ll write our own stories – tales of sin and grace.

Jonah Final Scene[1]


4 Responses

  1. Dee Hammers says:

    Yes, I am the same way, every time I go to bless a house, or get rid of bad spirits, I ask God, why me…..and He always answers why not me….we all feel inadequate but that’s before we put the armour of God on. If it’s what He wants us to do and we accept that, there’s no stopping us in what we can do in Christ’s name!

  2. JannieHildreth says:

    I know this web site gives quality based content and additional stuff, is there any other website which gives these kinds of things in quality?

    • Kim says:

      The letters are out of 2″ foam – which comes in 4′ x 8′ sheets at any big box/renovation store. The boat is propped onto steps and a large wood box.

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