Second Chances
After I resigned from RZIM, I resolved to never start an online community again. I'd run one for RZIM. Seeing it shut down and all the relationships suddenly ended kept me up for nights. When anyone asked me if I would do it again, I got angry. Why would I volunteer for an assignment that had caused me so much pain?
Nineveh is not just a great city but a great city to God. It's a strange idea. Politically, Nineveh was an Assyrian city that would later become Sennacherib's imperial capital. Religiously, the patron goddess of the city was Ishtar. The popular claim that the Ninevites worshipped a fish god is, as far as I can tell from reviewing the scholarship, false. So, who would think that Yahweh, the God of Israel, cared about it? In Jonah's world, people and places had their particular gods. But God's care for Nineveh goes far beyond the normal boundaries. So he sends Jonah on a prophetic mission to a city more than five hundred miles away from his hometown. When I visited Paris as a high schooler, I went into the city by myself and promptly got lost. I finally asked someone in broken French, "Where is the Metro?" He tried to help, but I didn't know what he was saying (thankfully, he pointed in the right direction). I went from Atlanta to Paris by plane and train. Jonah went from a small rural town to an enormous foreign city on a concierge sea monster journey and a month-long solo hike. He's had a rough time, and Nineveh is an intimidating city. The second time God speaks to Jonah, it's the same assignment as before: get up, go, and preach. It's a second chance, but the same assignment. Jonah's story is echoed in Peter's life. When Peter tried to stick by Jesus during his trial, a servant girl exposed his fear, and he denied even knowing Jesus. But after Jesus was buried for three days and rose again, Jesus invited Peter to breakfast by the sea. Then Jesus told him again, "Follow me" (John 21:19). They were the same words Jesus used when he first called Peter away from fishing on a lake into a ministry of proclaiming the gospel (Mark 1:17). Years later, Peter was on a rooftop in Joppa, the same seaport where Jonah headed to Tarshish, arguing with God about whether Gentiles would be included in God's mission. Though he found it unbelievable, he ended up walking into the home of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, to proclaim the good news (Acts 10). I still think it's strange that nine months after I left RZIM, God prompted me to start an online community.
What does it tell us about God that Nineveh was important to him?
How does God's willingness to give Jonah and Peter second chances change how you think about your past failures?
Is there anything you're "doing for God" even though you don't want to?
Ask God, "Is there something you asked me to do that I walked away from? Help me want to follow you."