As I reread my last Thoughts from the Cradle, I thought it sounded a little harsher than I would have wanted it to. I think talking about leaving my family was having a real effect on me.

As we flew into Iraq airspace, we flew over Mosul, which is the ancient city of Nineveh. This is the city that Jonah was asked to go and speak to…Jonah 1:2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.” As the story goes, Jonah refused to follow God’s direction and tried to escape by boat. A storm came and he admitted that it was his fault and the crew should throw him over board. They threw him overboard and the sea calmed. Jonah was swallowed by a whale. (there are at least two verified accounts of men being swallowed by whales and surviving as well as one dog). When he realized his true mistake called out to God. This one statement is quite profound. Jonah 2:8 “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” He was then spit out on the beach and he went to Nineveh. I think we often make our own comforts an idol. We do not do what God is calling us to do because we may have to give up those comforts. I was given this quote from my father-in law who is one of my heros. He served in the Air Force and won the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in Viet Nam. I think it applies very well to current attitude that many hold in the US.

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” - John Stewart Mill

I think this quote exemplifies how our selfishness and desire to protect ourselves can many times prevent us from achieving a higher good. I believe God is always looking for us to have absolute dependence on Him even if that takes us into harms way. As it says in the book of Philipians 1:21 To live is Christ and to die is gain.

I wonder in my own life how many times God has called me to do something and just like Jonah I ran from the task. Only to find myself in an even worse predicament.

More thoughts to come