still Jonah speaks
Laura Lindeman is a long-time member of NCF who thinks deeply about scripture. As we seek to keep learning, keep growing, and keep becoming the people God is creating us to be, may her reflections speak into your own journey of transformation. -Renée
“You keep using that word – I do not think it means what you think it means…”
This quote from the movie The Princess Bride has proven to be meaningful for me since I listened to Dr Dana’s teaching on Jonah (Aug 23). Raised on Sunday school attendance awards, I have heard many many lessons about Jonah; but not ones that labeled his actions as coming from pride. I thought pride meant over-celebrating, name-dropping, or superiority. “Thinking more highly of oneself than one ought.” And since God is opposed to the proud and gives grace to the humble- as a teenager I developed an excellent inferiority complex as an attempted antidote. When people tried to compliment me for something I had done or said, I would argue with them. Deny the worthiness or the origin: “anyone can do that, it wasn’t a big deal, it was God’s idea…”
Jonah does not look proud to me – he is not celebrating his skills as a prophet – he is annoyed by them. Dropping God’s name to the sailors on the boat is part of his prophet-self job description. I was so distracted by his anger (and the whale) that I did not notice the superiority he feels over the Ninevites. He feels holier and more deserving than they are and is hoping for their annihilation! And yet even his feelings of superiority are not the primary pride Dr. Dana was referring to. It is included – “Pride shows up as self-righteousness, arrogance, refusal to depend on God…” It is in the rest of the definition of pride: “Pride will cause us, as believers, to refuse God’s authority in our lives.” Jonah recognized God’s voice and he didn’t just refuse it; he tried to set up the future for the Ninevites that he believed they deserved: “they can’t repent if I don’t preach to them!” (Insert devious villain laughter here)
Even in Jonah’s eventual obedience, his heart has not changed. He preaches grudgingly and under compulsion. He refuses to accept God’s authority in his life and in the life of the Ninevites. And he does not enjoy the gifts God has given him. Which reminds me of a teaching that Bob Husband gave at NCF some time ago. He talked about “living the life that wants to live you.” That would include embracing our talents and God’s directions to use them. The life that wants to live Jonah is a life of prophetic justice and mercy. Instead of living that life he pridefully kicks and stamps and wishes for his own death. And instead of giving Jonah the justice (overturned abandonment, death, brimstone etc) Jonah seems to deserve for his aggressive refusal to accept God’s authority, God blesses Jonah with object lessons of his mercy.
After the 4th or 5th listen to Dr. Dana’s teaching on Jonah’s pride, I finally turned it toward myself… What if the fairly childish inferiority complex was Not an effective antidote at all! What if I was actively avoiding the life that wanted to live me? And what if years of refusal to acknowledge God’s authority over my life by dismissing God’s gifts to me was, in fact, the pride I had been attempting to avoid all along?
Laura Lindeman 9/26/26
One Comment On “still Jonah speaks”
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Whoa!
Really powerful, Laura. I was humbled at the “after 4 or 5 times listening…” INitially, What I got out of the teaching was was I making enough time to hear the Lord. I can be really good at listening to “Pray as you go” then pray the “Our Father” and then go on my way. And when someone comes to mind I pray for them but actively asking, not so much. Thank you.