There’s
Always a Boat to Tarshish
By
Elin Henderson
“But
Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a
ship going to Tarshish.”
Jonah
1:3 (NKJV)
When we need one, there is always a boat heading to
Tarshish. [1] The enemy makes sure there is always a “way out” of God’s calling
on our lives. We don’t have to look hard either; it will probably be the first
gang plank we come to on the dock. The space will be ample and the fare will be
cheap. We may even see it as divine providence; after all if God REALLY wanted
us to go to our proverbial Nineveh,
then why did we just stumble on this very viable option of escape?
Each of us receives a Nineveh calling at some point in our lives. God
calls us to do something that is so far off of our “acceptable”-meter that we
make a beeline for the shore and start looking for boats to Tarshish. We reason
that He could not possibly be serious in asking us to take that missions trip
to Europe this fall or teach a bunch of 1st
graders in Sunday School or reach out to that neighbor or coworker who has been
irritating us for years! All of the sudden, a leisurely cruise to the other
side of our “Mediterranean” starts looking better by the minute!
Nonetheless, God didn’t abandon Jonah, and He won’t
abandon us either. Whether we are just contemplating buying a fare or we are
already asleep down below the decks of the ship, God will come and meet us
there. Of course, like Jonah, He might have to use some creative transport to
get us back on track and to our destination. Sometimes, we all need a little time
in the belly of a great fish to straighten us out. Nevertheless, if we are
willing, He will get us to our final destination and to our place of calling
and use us in a mighty way. Let’s commit to taking God’s route to His calling
for our lives and steer clear of the cruise-line specials to Tarshish!
GOING DEEPER:
1. Have you
had a Nineveh-type calling from God before? What route did you take to get
there? Have you arrived yet?
2. What are
some ways we can stay on the path God has for our calling and not get
sidetracked down by the seashore by those “cruise-line specials”?
FURTHER READING:
[1] Context for this
Bible story can be found in Jonah
1-2.
Oakwood’s
missionaries Elin Henderson (a registered nurse) and her husband Phil serve as
church planters with New Tribes in Mozambique, Africa. Elin is mother to fourteen-year-old Callie
and twelve-year-old Elias.
