Imagery Of Jonah Story

The stories we find in scripture often have layers of meaning. They contain images that can be interpreted on different levels. As I lived with the first chapter of the story of Jonah the images that were contained in it took on various meanings.

The story speaks about Jonah being ‘asleep’ in the hold of the boat while the storm raged to everyone else’s consternation except his own.  The state of being ‘asleep’ seems to me to be a metaphor for being in a state of denial. The hold of a boat is usually dark and dank and is where the baggage is kept. Reflecting on this gave me a picture of Jonah being cut off from both his surroundings and his inner darkness; and unable to deal with the baggage of his past. Yet despite being cut off from it, this baggage still impacted on him and caused him to resist God and run away.

 Each person has been affected and wounded by their past and is carrying baggage of different types. This baggage is buried within them- in their ‘inner darkness’. The baggage ranges from emotional wounds to distorted perceptions of reality (illusions). The emotional wounds vary in type and degree from person to person. Unfortunately some people are ‘taken out' by the degree of wounding; and it is difficult for those wounds to heal. The illusions that people carry are either taken on from their society or social group; or from their own individual response to their life experiences. They therefore perceive things in a distorted way. This baggage hinders the person from fully being who the Lord created them to be; and from positively responding to what they hear God calling them to do.

In the Jonah story the storm (chaos he found himself in) and the intervention of those he was with together conspired to wake him up to the reality he was in. His companions confronted him with two things that he needed to address. Firstly, he had to own and take responsibility for the reality of his life situation. This was the first step towards moving out of the state of denial he had been in. The second was that they asked him who he was. He had to seriously look at his identity. He responded to this by identifying himself on two levels. He saw himself firstly as being “A Hebrew”, i.e. a member of a social group. He also secondly claimed to worship the Lord, i.e. he was in relationship with a transcendent God.

 Jonah needed to know who he was in order to be able to respond to the situation he found himself in. When God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let God’s people go, the first question Moses asked was: “Who am I to go to Pharaoh and tell him this?” The Lord had to assure Moses that He was with him and was sending him. Likewise Jonah needed to be secure in his identity in order to undertake the task he was being sent to perform.

I realized that I too needed to know who I am and be secure in my identity before I could do what I sensed the Lord was calling me to. My spiritual journey had taught me that ‘Being’ is primary to ‘Doing.’ I need to know who I am before I can engage in ‘doing’ with any authenticity. The doing has to flow out of my being.

 In the Jonah story this was followed by his commitment to sacrifice himself to alleviate the plight of those he was with. He was then thrown into the sea. As I lived with this I came to see that Jonah had to choose to move out of the darkness of the hold he was sleeping in, as well as his state of being weighed down by and trapped in the baggage he carried. Once he did this he was “thrown into the sea”. This was an image for me of extraneous circumstances being at work to bring him into a situation over which he had no control. In order for him to be set free it had to be done to him. The crucial issue was that if he was doing it himself, it would not have been an authentic process leading to change and transformation. There are many self-help books, courses and programs around; which are effective to a point. Yet true ‘transformation of being’ needs to happen to us; we cannot be in control.

 The image of the sea has two dimensions for me. On the one hand it symbolizes a chaotic situation of huge proportions over which I have no control. On the other it has to do with the mysterious, dark inner depths of myself. This is a place that I avoid and do not voluntarily go to. I too have to be ‘thrown in’. I necessarily have to confront the ‘dark’ side of who I am before change and transformation can take place. I am aware that I will experience both the exterior chaos and interior anguish as forms of suffering.

When my business collapsed I was thrust into a chaotic sea over which I had no control. In the midst of this I had to deal with my loss, inner insecurity, doubt and fear. I experienced both of these external and internal realities as intense suffering. Yet I have come to see that this was ‘necessary suffering’ which was leading me to change and transformation. It was leading me to embrace a different state of being and allowed me to let go of many distorted perceptions of reality which had been crippling me. Without the process I have been through I would still have been clinging to them for dear life (or death??).

*Have you experienced situations that were chaotic and beyond your control?

*How did you respond to them?

*Did they change you in any way?

*Were you able to see God at work in them?

Resistance to God

In my last blog we looked at the first chapter of the Old Testament Book of Jonah.  It tells how Jonah received a directive from the Lord to go to Nineveh and declare the Lord’s condemnation of how the people were living. Jonah resisted this and went in the opposite direction, only to be thrown into the sea and ending up in the belly of a great fish for three days. As I looked at this a primary question that arose for me related to why Jonah was resisting and running away?

To begin with, on the face of it this was not due to what we normally recognize as fear. He was an established prophet who was mentioned in 2 Kings 14: 25 as rightly predicting the restoration of the land of Israel to its ancient boundaries through Jeroboam II. He was therefore not afraid to venture onto the public stage and speak out. In the passage we looked at in the previous blog he also demonstrated a lack of anxiety by sleeping in the midst of the raging storm. He furthermore took responsibility for causing the storm and offered to sacrifice his own life to save the lives of the others on board the ship. Jonah was therefore not weak kneed, but clearly had another hidden agenda which led him to resist what God was asking him to do.  

As I lived with this passage I also became aware that Jonah was clearly a person who was in relationship with God; and dialoguing with the Lord was a usual practice. He was not someone far from and antagonistic to God; but he had inner issues that he struggled with. These prevented him from responding to what God was calling him to do. That made him someone I could identify with. I also desired to be in relationship with God but I was living with issues that stood in the way of both fully being who I was created to be; as well as doing what I sensed the Lord was calling me to do. I spent time trying to identify what those areas of resistance were. What emerged was that I was holding onto three negative, self-destructive attitudes that were both stifling and crippling me. They worked together like three intertwined strands of a rope to bind and immobilize me. I was effectively imprisoned by them.

 I remembered from studying psychology that attitudes can be seen as being predispositions to behave. They affect the way we think, feel and act; and are very enduring and difficult to change. We take them on unconsciously and very often do not even know we have them. I was only aware of these attitudes because I had already wrestling with them for some time, with the help of a spiritual director. I was aware of their power over me and that it needed to be broken. Yet I also knew from my struggle with these attitudes that I was powerless to do so myself. It would require a greater power than my own will power. I knew this in the same way that a recovering alcoholic who follows the Twelve Step AA program knows that they cannot beat their addiction alone. They recognize that they need the help of a ‘higher power’. In my case I was aware that I had to trust in the power of the risen Christ.

There is a tendency to see ‘sin’ as willful disobedience; but often it is fuzzier and not so clear-cut. It is not just a case of choosing to act differently. I have recognized from my own experience that I have been trapped in compulsive and addictive behaviour patterns that were very difficult to let go of. I was effectively in their grip and needed to be set free from their power over me.

Substance abuse addictions seem fairly obvious to spot. There are however always destructive underlying attitudes which underpin them that are much harder to uncover. The root causes need to be exposed in a process that follows a pattern like peeling off the layers of an onion to get to its core. In the Twelve Step Program the addict needs the support of others to do this and the power of God to break free.

It took me a long time to even identify what my destructive attitudes were. I needed others to help me in this process; I could not do so alone. I have also needed the support of others to help me break free; together with relying on the power of Christ through prayer.

Some questions for reflection:

*In light of what has been said are there hidden agendas or attitudes which prevent you from hearing
  what God is saying to you in our own life situation?  

*Are there things which block you from positively responding to what you hear God calling you to?

*Are you in the grip of compulsive and addictive behaviours?

*How have you dealt with these resistances?    

 That small part of me that resists God becomes the whole of me if it makes me turn away.

Confronting Mystery

In the previous blog I wrote about my two heart attacks and my business collapsing, along with the strong awareness I had that taken together these had been a ‘Jonah experience’. This led me to look at the Old Testament story of Jonah to see how it spoke into the reality I found myself in.

To paraphrase the first chapter of the Book of Jonah we see that Jonah, who was a prophet, was sent to the city of Nineveh to announce God’s judgment against it. However, Jonah chose to flee in the opposite direction and boarded a boat in Joppa bound for Tarshish (probably in south-west Spain).  

The ship encountered a violent storm that was life threatening to all on board. The crew panicked and cried out to their gods for protection. The crew members were shocked to discover Jonah asleep in the ships hold, seemingly unperturbed. He was woken up and told to pray to his god for mercy. They also cast lots to discover who had offended the gods and caused this storm. Jonah lost the toss and was asked what he had done to provoke the storm. He was also questioned about who he was. Jonah replied that he was a Hebrew who worshipped the Lord, God of heaven, who made the sea and the land. He said that the storm resulted from him running away from the Lord. 

Jonah was asked what could be done to stop the storm. He told them that since he had caused the storm they should throw him overboard to calm the sea. At first they were reluctant but when the turbulence got worse they asked pardon from God for taking Jonah’s life and threw him overboard. As soon as this took place the sea immediately grew calm. Thereafter Verse 16 says: “The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him”. Following this we are told that the Lord arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah; and he remained inside it for three days and three nights.  

This story raised many questions and confronted me with mystery on various levels. How could I make sense of this story? Was this merely a mythical story with some kind of moral meaning that I needed to grasp and apply? Was this a factual, historical account of a real person who was engaging in a relationship with God? How was he able to dialogue with God? Was God actively involved in the events of his life?  Was God able to control and manipulate physical elements such as wind and water; as well as cause a huge fish to function at his bidding? How could Jonah stay alive for three days in the belly of the fish? 

  

In my younger years I had obtained a BA degree in Social Science and was trained to view reality through rationalistic and secular lenses. My studies in psychology, sociology and philosophy were valuable and useful; but limited in scope. They precluded entertaining any notions of mystery and mystical reality. Within that frame of reference it was not possible. In Western society we live in a largely disenchanted universe.

 In spite of this I did accept mystical reality; the reality of God; as well as relationship and dialogue with God. Mysticism can be understood as awareness of a reality beyond the apparent reality we find ourselves in. Given this definition I am a mystic. Moreover, I know many living people who share that perception of reality and we follow in the footsteps of thousands upon thousands who have lived before us who did so as well. The question is how can I believe this given my aforementioned background knowledge from my rationalistic studies? The answer is that it came about through many personal encounters with God and the experience of intimate dialogue. How I initially came to know God is a story for another time. What I want to say here is that my awareness of the reality of God was progressively taken hold of through a long period of struggle (some thirty five years), and did not happen overnight. I had come to ‘know’ God through this at a deep level of being, rather than just ‘know about God’. There is a big difference.  Religion and religious studies deal with the latter; in this blog I am focusing on the former. When the Lord chose to be present to me in ICU I had no doubt about who I was relating to. It is a knowing that goes beyond my rational faculties; indeed a knowing that is radically at odds with how my education taught me to view the world. I have to hold the two in tension.   

Over the centuries much ink has been splashed across paper debating what creature swallowed Jonah. The Hebrew text was non-specific, referring only to a ‘great fish’. The consensus was that it had to have been a whale. To my mind one can get tied up in conjectural knots and miss the ultimate point. There is mystery at work here, pointing to mystical reality. If we are dealing with the God who, in Jonah’s words, “made land and sea”, then anything is possible. If God created the natural order and laws of nature, then God can choose to bend the rules and do something different. This God could also keep Jonah alive for three days in the belly of the fish.

Here are some questions for you to reflect on:

•   How do you respond to what you have read about the story of Jonah thus far?
•    At what level are you able to embrace mystery?
•   Who is God for you?
•   Have you experienced intimacy with God?
•   How do you respond to my experience?
•   How do you deal with the tension between your awareness of mystical reality and your rational education in the midst of the prevailing secular ethos of Western society?

http://www.facebook.com/john.keightley.98

Why Jonah's sign?

You might be wondering why this blog is called ‘Jonah’s Sign’. That will become apparent from reading how and why I have come to write it.

   

About six years ago, shortly before my fiftieth birthday, I had a major heart attack and ended up in hospital where it was discovered that I had three blockages in two of the three primary arteries of my heart. Thanks to the wonder of contemporary medicine the cardiology team was able to restore the functioning of my heart by inserting three stents where the blockages were. I spent a month at home recuperating and thereafter soon found myself to be fit and strong once more.

On another level, besides the obvious physical elements, this whole experience was deeply spiritual for me. In the first place, although this heart attack came without warning, I immediately had an inner sense of what was happening to me and that I should not panic; all was well and I should go with the flow of it. There was an experience of inner peace and awareness that I was being held. I had no real pain, just discomfort and pressure in my chest, along with my left arm becoming numb. Whilst lying in ICU I had a profound awareness of the presence of God. 

After the procedure, on my return home, there was a sense that somehow this was a Jonah experience. I connected lying in ICU for three days waiting for the stents to be implanted with the Old Testament story of Jonah being in the belly of the great fish. Moreover, the three stainless steel stents implanted in my heart seemed to represent being kept alive by the grace of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I had a deep sense of gratitude for being given a new lease of life. It felt like a rebirth and I viewed the reality of my life through new eyes; and had something like the flush of falling in love once again. This time my love interest was the One who had loved me into being in the first place.

The month spent at home recuperating was a time of wonder. My wife Sharon and our two sons, Euan and Kyle, were away during the day, working and studying. In their absence it was like being on a private retreat; spent in the company of my true Lover, who loved me unconditionally. During that time of intimacy I had an awareness of the Lord impressing on me that the joinery business that I was running at the time had become an idol and that I needed to let go of such intense involvement in it.  When I returned to work that was therefore what I did.

 Hindsight gives us great vision. Although at the time I was blind to what was happening I can now see that from that point my business slowly began to die. This business had taken me around twenty years to build up and was the source of my livelihood as well as the provision for the future of my family and myself. Needless to say I progressively began to panic, especially when it became clear that I could not save the business despite my best effort. Without going into detail for sake of brevity the death of my business took five painfull years and culminated in me having a second heart attack. My heart was literally broken. This time there was only one blockage, requiring only one stent, but it was the final nail in the coffin. I gave up, admitted defeat and stopped trading. It resulted in me entering into a time of grieving the loss of my business. For a few months I was emotionally wiped out and unable to function properly. During that time I was in a state of paralysis, with diminished ability to think clearly or act decisively. After this grieving period I began to try to find a way ahead.

   

I now had an even stronger awareness of this being a Jonah experience; not just the two heart attacks, but also the five year period it took for the business to die. The complete process had brought me to a very different place, with regard to both the external reality of my life as well as my inner reality. After much reflection I have now come to see that this was probably the worst thing that has happened in my life, yet at the very same time the best.

I was aware that the Lord leads us through our deep desires and so I plumbed the depths of my inner desire. A strong desire to write welled up and so that is what I did; and have done so for the past year. As a stutterer from childhood my ability to communicate has been severely restricted and I have now begun to find my voice and am starting to express myself. It has been like unplugging a volcano and experiencing an eruption and release of unexpressed words and emotions that have been suppressed within me for many long years.Amongst other things it has led me to write this blog.

In the context of my overall situation I was confronted with many questions, one of them being what the story of Jonah had to say to me in my predicament. I have learnt that my spiritual journey is not about having definitive answers, all neatly packaged and labeled; but with living the questions. It is the questions that both move and draw me; and without forward movement I remain static or even shrink back.
     

 My Christian spiritual journey has led me to first of all embrace mystery, because it requires faith in what I cannot comprehend with my mind or apprehend with my senses. As I have progressively embraced mystery at deeper levels I have been drawn into embracing paradox as well. I have discovered that most (if not all) of the profound mysteries of faith necessitate the uncomfortable reality of holding opposites in tension.  This runs contrary to all that is held dear and aspired to in the rationalistic Western society we live in; which is obsessed with control. We will explore this in a later blog.

One of my spiritual mentors said that the story of Jonah provides us with the essential pattern of spiritual transformation. I therefore decided to spend time looking at this story. What was also intriguing for me was that when Jesus was asked by a group of people to give them a miraculous sign to show them that he was from God, he replied that it was an evil and faithless generation that asked for a sign. He added that the only sign he would give them was the ‘Sign of Jonah’ (Matthew 12:38-40).

In the blogs that follow I invite you to journey with me in exploring what I discovered about the nature of signs and their interpretation; as well as both what the Old Testament  story of Jonah had to say to me; and what I believe Jesus meant by giving the ‘Sign of Jonah’ to those people who would not accept him for who he was. I will use a contemplative approach, allowing you to explore the questions for yourself. I hope that you will use the opportunity to meditate on what we look at together. It is a fascinating journey which goes to the heart of the process of spiritual transformation. You are welcome to either sign up or opt out at this point.