There are times in business where we have to sit in the belly of the whale and stew a bit before accepting what God has in store for us.
“But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port… then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. (and the sailors asked Jonah what to do and Jonah said) “Pick me up and throw me into the sea, and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”… Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God…” What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.” And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Parts of Jonah 1&2
In early 2013, I thought I heard from the Lord. I was to finish my tenure with the firm to whom Terri and I had sold our company, then get out (I had a four year noncompete I was finishing). I was at the top of my stipendiary game, respected in my field. God did not give me a clear idea of where I was to go, except for a faint hint that it was something in business as mission, just that I was to leave. (At least Jonah knew he was supposed to go to Nineveh!)
I fought God! My journals though that period were full of anguish and fist-clenching. Then during that time, I had my own belly of the whale experience. I took on a particularly challenging role as an expert witness in a difficult court case. It was brutal on me, my staff, and all involved in both sides of the case. I came out of there bruised and partially digested. It showed me what a future staying in the belly might be, and how I might become a chewed up mass of fish meal in the process, though a rich one.
So I stopped running from the Maker, and Terri & I stepped out in faith. God walked with us along the path to supporting business as mission enterprises full time. As my friend Kevin says, “high risk, low return, high reward’ work.
Jonah was transformed in the belly of the whale to confess and submit to God, then to where he could speak truth to power in Nineveh. I was transformed to take a daring leap I was not prepared to take. Belly of the whale experiences in business stink, but truth and learning comes out of these times.
Prayer
Lord, here I am, smelling faintly like fish and covered with seaweed, ready to do your Will.
Amen
ps. As I wrote this devotion, I realised that the first place God sent us when we were testing the waters of business as mission was Erbil, 83 km from Nineveh (now Mosul). We and Jonah, we’re a team.
pps. The original idea for this post came from a reading by Martin Shaw
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