The Lamentations Of Jonah

* Jesus pray for me
* Jonah pray for me

+-----The Lamentations Of Jonah; Jonah's Heart To Heart Confession To The Captain Of The Ship Sailing For Tarshish

Do you ever feel as if
inevitability is chasing you as
some vulgar Assyrian soldier from
Nineveh, drool and crusted mucus
lodged in its ridiculously crimped beard,
barbaric epithet-murmuring of the most
recent chapter of brutalizing innocent people
on its chapped scaly leathery lips? Its hand
running the length of the blade of a
sword that lusts only for you? Like fate has
already descried you from afar, written,
before the womb, a stage play for failure
or greatness without consent?
One day, I guess, you might wisen up
to wily cosmic ways. THE Will Divine. You
might accept the futility of attempting
escape, of running away from that
which is already destined; that Tarshish
may as well be a fanciful myth…
because no matter how earnestly
you wish to see it,
it just wasn’t meant to be….


-----Jonah 1:5-16
All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.” Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.