Wednesdays FBC Devotional Thought “But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon they God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.” Jonah 1:4-6 This time of year is an exciting time to be a basketball fan. For high schools, region play is in full force, even wrapping up, as it gets close to play-off time. In colleges, teams are having almost solely conference games and are likely trying not to look too far down the road while at the same time striving to fulfill their goals of making it to or even winning the NCAA Tournament. Even people who aren’t really college basketball fans can enjoy the Tournament! It seems that every year, from the 64 or so teams who make it into the tournament, one team comes from seemingly nowhere to do very well and even make it to the Final Four. Several years ago, when we lived in Northern Virginia, that team was George Mason University from Fairfax, VA. A couple years ago it was Butler University from Indiana. These teams are often called “sleepers,” and they are fun to watch. In that sense, the word “sleeper” means that a team or person who is not expected to do well performs beyond everyone’s expectations and causes a great deal of energy and excitement! So, come tournament time, being a sleeper is a good thing. In this verse, however, Jonah was the sleeper, and that was a bad thing. God had clearly commanded Jonah to go to Ninevah and preach to the people. He headed the opposite way and got on a boat headed for Tarshish. God was most displeased, and He sent a vicious storm so that the ship was almost demolished! The sailors were scared and began to throw overboard their things to lighten the boat. They were rowing and working hard to no avail. Finally, the captain went below deck and found Jonah, who was asleep. These other men are literally working for their lives, and Jonah is sleeping! He is oblivious to the difficult situation that these men are in, and it is completely his fault in the first place that they are in such a bad way! Jonah wasn’t sleeping because he was fully at peace and had a clean conscience; he was sleeping because his heart was hardened to the conviction of God. Being oblivious is not the same as being at peace! Jonah’s sin endangered the lives of these sailors. How often do we hear of similar situations today! One person’s sin has ripple effect that he or she may not see until someone shakes them and says, “Wake up!” Drunkenness. Cheating on a spouse. Gossiping. Smoking. These sins have extremely negative effects on other people who are guiltless in those particular situations. And sometimes the person who is causing the negative effect is oblivious, thinking that what they are doing is their own business or that it doesn’t hurt anyone else. How sadly wrong that thought is. While not all sins are as devastating as the ones listed above, all sin separates us from God until we ask for His forgiveness and cleansing, and when we’re not as close to God as we could be, everyone around us will be less than positively impacted. Let’s leave the sleepers for the tournaments! Arise! -Susan Veazey
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 14:00:00 +0000