What is God Calling You to Do?

Jonah is a fascinating story in the bible that represents human follies and sentiments and also God’s relentless pursuit to have his disciples to be part of the salvation story. Jonah is very much like many of us who say “no” to God when called unlike the disciples.

The choices God wants us to make are not easy- it calls for sacrificial love- sacrificing our will to accept His will for a higher purpose. Like Jonah, we try to flee but can anyone escape from God? We try to pick the easy choice or what we want but realise that it can be a difficult journey that leads us to a path feeling trapped like Jonah in “the belly of a whale” and we end up crying out to God to free us.  Since God is merciful and in control, we eventually end up where God wants us like Jonah even through the wrong choices.

Jonah preaches repentance to the people of Nineveh and anticipates God’s wrath on them. Little did he realise that through the grace of God the Ninevites repent. All God wants is a vessel  and the rest is done by Him.

Just like Jonah, sometimes we become judges and think retribution is what some deserve. But we have a merciful God who is all out to save and not condemn.

We have a merciful God who is all out to save and not condemn.

Pope Francis said that “the story of Jonah presents two figures of the Church today – One is rooted in its ideologies like Jonah and the other shows the Lord who approaches all situations without disgust. Our sins don’t disgust the Lord. He approached and caressed the lepers and the sick because He came to heal, He came to save, not to condemn. Christians who continue to ‘prefer ideology to faith’ are afraid to place themselves in the hands of God and prefer to judge everything from the ‘smallness of their hearts’” (8 Oct 2019).

So what is God calling you to do? We are definitely not called to be judges! So let’s try to avoid the pitfalls of self-righteousness. We are all called to live a life with a purpose – to be part of His salvation. We are called to be vessels of His love and mercy. – SR