We’re about three weeks into a new year and many of you have kept up with your New Year’s Resolutions. Some of you will be the skinnier you. Others will be the more athletic you. Some will be a braver you or a richer you or a more intentional bible reading version of you or just about anything that enhances who you are. How’s that going?
I personally hate New Year’s Resolutions. I can’t stand them. I don’t make them because I know that sometime during the year I’ll grow so comfortable in the way things are going that I’ll forget about them. Then when I actually remember I’ll feel like a failure. But every year I do take time to become more intentional. I become more intentional in the person I am and the things I do.
When we lose our sense of intentionality we end up going through the motions. We just do what we do because it’s what we’ve always done. How terrible to go through life on autopilot!
This week I want to share with you about a man named Jonah. He pretty much was the perfect illustration of a man on autopilot. He was a prophet who’s job was to tell people about God and encourage them to change their ways. The short version of the story he got caught on autopilot and then flat rebelled against what he was supposed to do. He ended up getting swallowed by a whale then spit out on shore.
Lest you think this whole thing is a little too fishy to believe there was a man named James Bartley who was reportedly swallowed by a sperm whale back in the late 1800s. His story is pretty incredible actually.
But the moral here in the book of Jonah is that whether we get stuck on autopilot or flat out rebel against God, he will bring us back. So take some time today to think about the word intentional. Don’t let your life be a tale of sleep walking through life. Make people look at your life and think that you too lived a bit of a whale of a tale kind of life!
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