Fish stomaches are smelly

Ok, so I've posted a lot today and yesterday. Probably because I've had NOTHING to do really today...just read and read and read...went on a walk to the beach, and read some more. Now I'm at my favorite coffee shop reasearching a company I have an interview with tomorrow (yep, that's right...interview in the morn) and READING some more!!! Craziness. Well, one thing a lot of you might know about me is that when I read I love to share the parts that I like the most. Just ask becka about living with me when I was reading Blue Like Jazz..."Oh my gosh becka! Can I just read you this one part real quick????" Yeah, well, one cool thing about having a blog is that I can do that ALL the time and no one has to listen unless they want to! It's perfect really. :-) So yeah, here I go a-sharing once again........(song lyrics first though...changed it up a bit). When I post things from songs or poems or books or the bible, they are just things that I can relate to or that I'm finding encouragement in. They are just another way for you to understand what's on my mind spiritually and emotionally pretty much. So if you're interested, keep reading. Love you all:

"Trace the shape of my heart until it becomes more familiar to Your eyes. Been lost without you, cold without your love, it's taken days and nights to make me realize. Rescue me from hanging on this line, I won't give up on giving you a chance to blow my mind. So take the place of my heart until I become a stranger to my life" Thanks for saying what I was feeling Jars of Clay. :-)

Ok, so yeah, I liked those lyrics...not so much a fan of the song really (sorry Jars) but I do love the lyrics. Also, I've been really focusing a lot on the story of Jonah...I feel like Jonah. Basically I realized that I had been sleeping in the midst of the storm that had been caused by my attempts to run from God. Well, I woke up. And like Jonah, have been tossed overboard...Jonah was willing to surrender himself completely because he told them to throw him overboard...he probably just figured he was going to die. And i'm sure a lot of you know the story, but just in case you don't, he gets swallowed by a whale and lives inside it for three days. While he's inside the fish he prays a pretty rad prayer (my prayer for this current time in my life...I'll put it at the bottom of this post) and then the fish spits him out on dry land and then jonah goes and does what it was God wanted him to do in the first place (talk to ninevah) and he stops running from God...obviously, there are other aspects of the story I'm not touching upon but you can go read those in the book of Jonah in the Old Testament. So yeah, I'm Jonah...Yes yes, I know you're a bit confused because all this time I've been telling you I'm rach...well, ok, fine, I'm still the green loving rach, but a part of me so deeply relates to Jonah and his story. So yeah, like I said, I've been running from God, then got "tossed" over board (into the sea of loneliness) BUT unlike Jonah I hung onto the side of the boat for a little while. Well, I'm happy to say that I have now let go completely and am basically chillin inside the whale. And boy does it stink and it's lonely and not fun, but hey, situations like this never are. I like to think about how Jonah must have felt inside the fish (sometimes I think that's so important when reading stories from the bible...since we already know what happens to jonah, that he gets spit out, we know it's all going to work out...I feel like sometimes I forget that the person going through it didn't know it was going to work out...I'll even say to myself, "oh yeah, so and so had faith, but hey, that's easy beause it always works out for them, and they even have God talking to them, not like today" Well, they didn't know everything was going to work out...and HEY, we have the holy spirit LIVING inside of us...as christians, who are we to say that we don't get direction from God just because His method changed and actually became more intimate...anyways, yeah when I place myself in their minds into their emotions...as much as a I can...I feel like it really adds depth to the story, and causes me to learn even more from it) ok, continuing on....While inside the fish, I'm pretty SURE that he didn't know he was going to be spit out...he probably thought he was going to die...his chances weren't looking so good. Still, he was willing to submit unto God even unto death, and yet our little running from God friend STILL held onto his faith while inside the stinky fish. How do I know this? well, take a look at his prayer he prays while inside the fish:

"I called out of my distress to the Lord, and He has answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice. For You had cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. So I said, 'I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.' Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, weeds were wrapped around my head. I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, but You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple. Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness, but I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord. " Jonah 2:2-9

Rad prayer don't you think????? And hey, guess what? after all that pain and suffering (I can BET that his experience was pretty bad) God's will and God's glory STILL came through...for example, the people on the boat during the storm that threw jonah overboard, became believers of God because of Jonah's disobedience AND Ninevah ended up repenting. So, as I am learning and trying not to forget, God is sovereign and God is good. When we run from God and are disobedient to God we can't stop his plan...we can suffer the consequences of our sin, like hurting our relationship with Him and hurting other peeps. However, God keeps his promises and wastes not one tear.

I praise you my dear sweet loving God...I praise you for the storm and for the fish...I praise you for not letting me run from you and reminding me that I am your child, and not only for welcoming me home with open and joyful arms, but for even running to me when you saw me coming (limping....crawling?) in the distance. Now is the time for rejoicing because at last I am home.

SOOOOOO...thanks for once again reading my long ramblings...like I've always said during the entire life of this blog...I tend to go in spurts...TONS of blogs for like a week...then nothing at all.