I want to share three unique dispositions and behaviors whose purpose and end game (besides being quite fascinating) can each help us in examining our spiritual walk with the Lord:
- The Rabbit
- The Safety Car
- The Pacemaker
The Rabbit— In Greyhound racing, the dogs chase a lure, which generally is an artificial ‘hare’ or ‘rabbit’, around a track until they arrive at the finish line. Without this aid, the dogs would have little motivation to run at the same time or at all. You
can watch endless youtube videos, but when a real rabbit breaks onto a track during a race, total chaos ensues. The object of the rabbit is to motivate the racers at the right time and help them finish their task.
The Safety Car— In a variety of motorsports, a safety car, is a car which limits the speed of competing cars on a racetrack in the case of caution periods such crash or obstruction on the track. During this period 
the safety car enters the track ahead of the leader and all competitors must yield to and not pass the safety car or other competitors during this caution period. At the end of the caution period, the safety car leaves the track and the competitors resume racing. The object of a safety car is to ensure the racer doesn’t go faster than is safe.
The Pacemaker— In running, a pacemaker (sometimes called a rabbit) is a runner who leads a middle or 
long distance race for the first section to ensure a successful race and hopefully a major accomplishment for the runner. Pacemakers are frequently hired by race organizers for world record attempts and have specific instructions for lap times or pace. In running, pacemaking became the norm after two men, Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway successfully paced Roger Bannister to break the four-minute mile for the first time in 1954. The object of pace making is to set the tone and tempo for the runner.
Jonah could have used any or all three in his life and you could too.
- Without a rabbit, Jonah raced ahead with improper motivation and got pretty mixed up about his final destination.
- Without a safety car, Jonah got ahead of himself and God, traveling faster than was safe for him, and landed in a pretty big pile-up.
- Without a pacemaker, Jonah squandered his total game/journeyand finished with lack luster results. While through him 120,000 people were saved, his personal relationship with God suffered greatly and instead of coming across the finish line strong he hit a pretty big wall (runners terminology here).
At the start of a dog race, car race or running race, there is hope, potential, and dreams all teeming to come out and be reached and accomplished. Pace has everything to do with the end success and when you are out of sync for any reason, the end result will be disappointment.
We like Jonah, have tremendous potential to
respond to God every time he calls us. We like Jonah have tremendous potential to respond to God in every way that He calls us. When God leads, he provides. He will establish the pace, provide the motivation, and keep us under His care along the way.
Unlike Jonah, we would be wise to heed to the lessons of the rabbit, safety car and pace setter; ensuring proper motivation, safety and pace.
As we look back on the book and story of Jonah, we can see the story in two parts:
- Would be chapter 1—Jonah Forsakes His Mission.
- Then Part 2, chapters 2, 3 and 4—Jonah Fulfills His Mission.
But while accurate, there’s more to the story. There’s always more to the story.
We’ve further broken it down to see Jonah as:
- the disobedient prophet, Running Away From the Lord. (ch1)
- the disciplined prophet: Running Back To The Lord. (ch2)
- the dynamic prophet: Running With The Lord. 9ch3)
- and today in chapter 4 we will see Jonah become the disappointed prophet: Running Ahead of the Lord.
Let’s take a look at today’s text, Jonah 4:
The Three Little Pigs: Wah Wah Wah all the way home and Huffing and Puffing: Do you remember the three little pig who cried wee-wee-wee all the way home and the Big Bad Wold who huffed and puffed? That’s exactly how Jonah acted here. 1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. Have you ever known a person or a company who forgot what they were all about, because they got “too-big-for-their-britches”? This is what had happened with the Jews and with Jonah.
Way back in Genesis 22, God firmly established the role of the Israelites for the future: 15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and 
said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” (Genesis 22:15-18)
The Jews of Jonah’s day, just like the Jews of Paul’s day, had no real desire to share the love of God or the gift of knowing Him with the 
Gentiles. They had forgotten their call and their purpose and wanted to play the role of God and even furthermore, go beyond God’s disposition as a judge and be a harsh and unmerciful judge. In no way did it make any sense that they would want to withhold God’s call to repentance from anyone, but that’s exactly what Jonah tried to do and is angry about now
Question 1: Are you ever angry or displeased when someone doesn’t get what you thought was coming to them? Are you ever judge, jury and executioner, at least with words, or looks, or attitude when it 
comes to someone who needs to be put in their place. If so, STOP. On two levels here:
(1) If someone needs a wake-up call or to be told something, do it privately and in love, or you are no better than them.
(2) Love your neighbor as yourself, love your neighbor with the same level of grace, mercy, patience and long-suffering that the Lord has with you.
I want to encourage you to get in check, and/or get rid of your “anger and displeasure” with others and begin to see through and live life with a different lens.
Me Myself and I: Have you ever heard the expression, “there’s no ‘i’ in team”? Of course you have. There’s a 
plethora of expressions that draw attention to individuality. whether “me, myself and I” or “I, me, my”. Listen to all of these I, Me and My’s. 2He prayed to the LORD, “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4 But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”
Six times Jonah asserts his thoughts, his knowledge and tells God what to do? Really? Paul’s words to the Corinthians fit perfectly here: “24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” (I Corinthians 1:24-25)
Question 2: What is your mode of operation? Praying and asking God for the things you want, desire and feel you need?
Or, do you seek God’s will for your life? Do you stop and ask Him to guide you as to how to best use you, your skills, your time, your talents, your gifts, your resources?
I know you’re busy, have goals and dreams, you have desires and wants. But which is it: Do you belong to God or does God belong to you? You’re living one of those angles? Which one is it?
I’m Just Going To Go To My Room, SLAM! 5 Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to se
e what would happen to the city. Anyone remember yelling at your parents something along the lines of “You Just Don’t Understand!” and then going to your room and slamming the door? Are you living it now? This is EXACTLY what Jonah says to God and then goes and does. Only he didn’t have a door to slam, because he didn’t have anywhere to live…..so he went and built a shelter and then slammed the door!
Question 3: Have you been hurt or disappointed, or are you hurt and disappointed, and instead of pursuing God, like a toddler, like a teenager, like an immature or childish level faith Christian, have you gone away from God and slammed the door, and are waiting now to see what will happen next?
And God Was There: I’m not a poet, at best I’m a rhymer. I make up rhymes every day and play with words with my little Lily. But these three verses make me want to write a poem titled: And God Was There. Jonah experiences here what all of us either 
accept or ignore from God, a lesson. I believe that most of the time, when things go well, or when things are tough for us, God has a lesson and character waiting to be learned. We probably miss it 90% of the time.
Go did to Jonah what he continually does for us, patiently taught him a lesson. 6 Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
I DO NOT want to learn the lesson that outside of relationships, EVERYTHING in this life is temporary. Everything has a shelf life, everything has an expiration date. Everything that is good is a gift
from God. Everything that is hard to accept or understand is an opportunity to grow closer to our Creator. We can listen to these words and say, “Yes, that is very true” when we are not in the midst of a situation. Jonah was so caught up in his emotions he couldn’t see the bigger picture of what God was doing.
Question 4: What about you? You get angry at God when “He takes your mom or dad” but did you expect them to live forever? You understand the nature of cars, roads, accidents, environmental toxins, disturbed people, and the fact that God doesn’t micromanage his Creation but gave us all free will, right? When something happens in this short lifetime of ours that is but-a-sand-on-the-beach-of-eternity, are you going to spend it being angry, defiant, huffy puffy, mopey, or depressed over things you cannot control? Over things that God wants to use to grow your understanding and character?
Perspective: It’s all about perspective, isn’t it? Look at how this conversation rounds out. 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?”
“I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die.”
10 But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
- We are part of God’s story, more than He is a part of ours.
- We exist for God’s glory, He doesn’t exist for ours.
- We are here today and will be gone tomorrow and play a temporary role on Earth. God’s is the creator, sustainer and redeemer of all of His creation. His desire is that all come to know his love and the gift of Salvation.
We often get these things backwards and think life is all about us and our plans.
Question: This question encapsulates the earlier four: Who are you all about: Yourself or your creator?
Let me phrase it another way: Are you surrendered to God’s will and God’s ways or are you trying to force everyone and everything around you to surrender to your will and ways?
Today’s message and the story of Jonah force us to ask some deep level and hard hitting questions.
God may use you just as you are, but like Jonah you may be angry, disappointed and frustrated. You may be running ahead of the Lord because you are not surrendered to His will and His ways. The call is to repent of your pride, repent of your plans and to surrender your life to one that loves, cares for and wants to use you for His glory and so that you can come to know Him in ways yet unimaginable. It cannot happen until you surrender.
I pray this will be your response to God.
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As a kid who grew up in a fundamentalist church that didn’t observe the church or liturgical calendar but stuck to just the Bible, I had no idea what Ash Wednesday or Lent were all about. In fact, until I was in college I knew more about belly button or navel lint, then the season of Lent.
The season of Lent is altogether something different. Lent is the Christian observance from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday.
Lent kicks off with Ash Wednesday and culminates with Holy Week, whose crowning day is Easter Sunday. During Lent it is common to commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxury as a form of penitence. Lent is referenced by both Irenaeus and Eusebuis in their writings, so we know the practice was in place well before the 200′s.
ore modeled after that, Lent is described as being forty days long. Different denominations calculate the forty days differently however. In many of the Christian churches, Lent is regarded as being forty days long, but the Sundays until Easter Sunday are not typically regarded as being part of Lent; thus, the date of Fat Tuesday will typically be slightly more than forty days before Easter Sunday.
Fat Tuesday is the last day of “regular time” and Ash Wednesday is the day that kicks off the season of Lent. The prophets Jeremiah, Daniel and Jonah set the precedent of being marked with ash. Jesus also references the practice in the New Testament. It wasn’t until the beginning of the 11th century however, that the Abbot Aelfric notes that it was customary for all the faithful to take part in a ceremony on the first Wednesday of Lent that included the imposition of ashes. Near the end of that century, Pope Urban II called for the general use of ashes on that day. Eventually this day came to be called Ash Wednesday.
At first, clerics and men had ashes sprinkled on their heads, while women had the sign of the cross made with ashes on their foreheads. Eventually, the ritual used with women came to be used for men as well. It was in the 12th century the rule developed that the ashes were to be created by burning palm branches from the previous Palm Sunday. A number of churches today invite members to bring such palms to church before Lent begins and have a ritual burning of the palms together. I collected the leftover palms off the floor of the church last year and saved them. Next year we’ll try the collective burning ceremony.
Ash Wednesday is the opportunity to enter into a period of re-dedication, sacrifice and a deeper walk of faith. The marking with ashes if done in the morning serves as a public declaration to the world of your faith, if done in the evening it serves as a more personal commitment in the final hours of the day generally lending itself to an evening of reflection and prayer.
Lenten sacrifices are as typical as “no meat and sweets” until Easter Sunday to “I’m giving up Facebook till Easter”. The sacrifice is less important than the motive behind it. Nowadays many use Lent to lose weight or to get back on track with fitness or time management. The original idea was to elicit sacrifice and longing and for it to be be replaced with dependence on Christ to fill the needs and voids in our life. I suggest adding the practice of a spiritual discipline that amounts to at least 10 minutes a day or sacrificing a regular 30 minute daily activity (such as one TV show) and replacing it with prayer walking during that time. Most people won’t do either of these but those who do will receive the reward many times over!
As a Junior High and High school kid, I though it was so weird that so many people had dirt on their forehead and were walking around with it on them. 20 years later, I gladly bear the mark and enter make personal vows of sacrifice in an attempt to go deeper in my walk with the Lord.
