Living From Sunday 2 Sunday
Living From Sunday 2 Sunday
EP 181: You Can Run But You Can't Hide
Purpose will chase you until you decide to stop running. This profound truth anchors our exploration of Jonah's timeless story and what it reveals about our own spiritual journeys when we try to flee from divine calling.
What makes us run from our purpose? Often, like Jonah, we question whether the assignment is worthy of our time and effort. We might feel inadequate or overwhelmed by what God asks of us. But running comes at a steep price—Jonah literally paid a fare to sail away from his responsibility to Nineveh. Similarly, we invest in distractions rather than in our calling, creating consequences that ripple outward.
The most compelling aspect of Jonah's narrative is how his disobedience endangered everyone around him. While he slept peacefully below deck, the sailors above fought desperately against a violent storm. This mirrors our spiritual apathy—when we become comfortable in our disobedience, we grow blind to how our actions (or inaction) affect others. Yet even in Jonah's flawed state, his prophetic purpose shined through. When thrown overboard, the sea calmed and the pagan sailors began believing in his God, demonstrating how our purpose transcends our imperfections.
True spiritual realignment requires three essential steps: recognizing where we are, repenting with complete ownership, and rebuilding our daily walk with God. This process—repentance plus redirection—puts us back on our intended path. My own journey reflects elements of Jonah's story, proving that while we may run, we cannot hide from what God has called us to do. He always provides a way back.
What would a wholehearted "yes" to God look like in your life? Consider writing down your commitment as a surrender prayer and sharing it with someone on your spiritual journey. Subscribe to Living From Sunday to Sunday wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next time as we continue exploring how to live faithfully through life's challenges.
Welcome to the Living From Sunday to Sunday podcast with your host, pastor B. This podcast is designed to help you walk faithfully with God through the various trials and challenges this life presents. The truth of who we are is revealed in our lives in between Sundays. You will be inspired, challenged and equipped to live a victorious life that will bring glory to God himself. Come on, let's get started. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Living From Sunday to Sunday podcast. I am your host, pat Tamee.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I believe that this is going to be the best time that you've spent on social media. I believe that real change happens in our conversation at a time, and so do me a favor if you have not already. Make sure that you like, share and subscribe to today's podcast. Of course, this podcast can be found everywhere where they are available and, of course, if you're watching, via YouTube. Thank you so much for tuning in. Make sure that you subscribe to the show, hit the notification bell so that anytime a new episode is released, you will be the first to know, right?
Speaker 1:So I want to start this episode off by saying this purpose will chase you until you decide to stop running. Purpose is definitely going to chase you down until you decide to stop running. One thing that God has called each and every person to is he's called us to make an impact, to make a change in the lives of others. Right, we have a purpose, we have a call, but a lot of times we will run. We either don't see ourselves as worthy, we think the call is too much, is too great, and we often try to run from what God has called us to do. But if it's one thing I know without a shadow of a doubt is that you can run, but you cannot hide, all right. And so today we're going to talk about that. We're going to look at the life of Jonah. We're going to look at how Jonah is the one of the examples of choosing to run from God and how that plays out in our lives and how it impacts not just ourselves but those that we are connected to. Okay, all right. So when we look at Jonah, we're going to look at just the first three chapters of this particular book, but Jonah's story is an interesting one because it talks about how Jonah eventually decided that what God called him to do and who God called him to speak to wasn't worth his time, wasn't worth his opinion and it wasn't worth the effort needed of showing up.
Speaker 1:Think about it. Jonah was given the instruction to go and preach to Nineveh. Right, nineveh is in the Bible. It's a pagan city, a city of the Assyrians, which at the time was an enemy to the children of Israel, right? And so Jonah doesn't see that Nineveh is a worthy cause, right?
Speaker 1:Sometimes, part of the reason that we neglect the call of God is sometimes, where God tells us to go, what God calls us to do, we don't think it's worth it, we think it's a waste of time, we don't believe in the work that God has called us to, and so, whenever that's our posture, whenever that's our demeanor, we are going to run, we're not going to fully embrace what God has called us to do, and so that's what Jonah does. So, jonah, instead of going toward Nineveh, he gets into a ship, and that's headed in the opposite direction. It's headed toward Tarshish, right. And so Jonah goes onto this boat, and this isn't a free boat. He actually has to pay in order to run away from God. How many of us have ever paid? People paid, other we paid for distractions. Other, we paid for distractions. We paid for anything that would cause us to go away from God. Whether it's subscriptions, whether it's, it doesn't matter what it is Like if we invest in other things rather than investing in what God has called us to do. Sometimes, god calls us to fast, he calls us to pray, he calls us to submit, he calls us to go into other, unknown places and territories, and, instead of investing our heart, our mind and our souls into the assignment that God has called us to, we invest in other things. Right, the assignment that God has called us to, we invest in other things. Right? So Jonah paid a fare to run away from both the presence of God and the call of God. So the one thing I want you to remember that running from God costs. It is expensive. Cost, it is expensive. There are things that we end up having to. There are seeds that we plant that end up reaping a harvest of bad crops that we always have to deal with.
Speaker 1:Right, when you look at the prodigal son. Right, the prodigal son was given everything that he needed, even though it wasn't the right time. He takes it and he invests in his own pleasure. And what was the cost of that, right, he lost everything. And he is the son of a wealthy, a wealthy father who made every effort to take care of his children. But yet this runaway son is the one who is living with the, with the hogs, and eating what the hogs eat, right? So running from your purpose and running away from God really is expensive. So we have to always remember that. Okay, so Jonah, he's in the boat and they are sailing away.
Speaker 1:And Jonah has gotten so comfortable with his disobedience that he has been lulled to sleep. He is not aware of the danger surrounding him, he's not aware of the real impact of his actions, he is focused solely on himself, solely on his pleasure, solely on ignoring what God has called him to do. And this is the downside, or the byproduct, oftentimes, of us ignoring the voice of God. We become lulled into a sense of security because we're not pursuing what God has called us to do. Right, we think that life is good. Right, there is a false sense of security and a false sense of relief sometimes that we fall into because we all can tell ourselves God, if you don't bother me, I won't bother you. Right, and God, he's a gentleman, right, he often won't go out of his way to go against our will. But what I think is interesting about Jonah's story is that, although God doesn't, god gives us free choice, there's always consequences to all of the choices that we made right.
Speaker 1:And so, jonah, he's asleep on the bottom of the ship. But at the top of the ship, all hell is breaking loose. Right, there's a massive storm. There is a massive disturbance in the sailors at the top of the boat. Disturbance in the sailors at the top of the boat. They are struggling, they are barely clinging to life right now. And so one of the sailors searches the ship and they find Jonah at the bottom. They find him sleeping, resting, unaware of the dangers that he's facing and that everyone else is facing. So he calls Jonah. He says hey, jonah, amen, you've got to like. Why are you asleep? How can you be asleep in this particular environment, with all of this stuff going on? How can you sleep? How are you not outraged? How are you not praying? How are you not aware of what's happening? And again, I want to kind of stay here for a moment.
Speaker 1:I wonder how many people who seem to be aloof, who seem to be asleep, who seem to not care about what's happening in our world. I wonder how many of them really are running from what God has called them to do. I wonder if it's easier to have your head in the sand and act like it's not there, right, but really, what God has called us to do, he's called us to be agents of change. He's, he's calling us, he's giving us a voice, right To speak, um, speak to power. But some of us are very apathetic and we're not paying any attention because we don't want um the responsibility of of speaking up, right, and so some of us are like Jonah, right. And so some of us are like Jonah, right, we are asleep at the bottom of the boat. But society will wake us up. It'll wake us up and say, hey, hey, aren't you supposed to be doing something about this? Like, you see what's happening, you see that this boat is sinking. And so Jonah immediately knows, he sees everything that's happening and he immediately knows what the problem is, right. So he comes to terms with his disobedience, right? He says you know what this entire storm is happening because of me. I have failed my duties, I have not stepped up in the way that God has called me to, and because of this, everybody in this boat is being impacted, right? So he says hey, I promise you, if you throw me overboard, the storm is going to stop and things will get back to normal.
Speaker 1:Now what I think is really, really interesting, though, is that Jonah again his call, his role, is one of a prophet. A prophet is one that points people to God. Right, it is to deliver warning, to deliver instruction, to deliver correction to a group of people, with the ultimate end goal of bringing people to God. So when that, when your call is your call and when your purpose is your purpose, you can't help but do it, even when you have been disobedient, and here's what I mean. So Jonah's purpose is much, much greater than his flaws, because if you read the entire book of Jonah, you know that Jonah is a flawed character.
Speaker 1:But the very moment that he acknowledges his wrong, the very moment that he says you know what? I am in the wrong place with the wrong people and you need to throw me over. What happens is, when they do it right, they're afraid, they're afraid, but they do it. And the moment Jonah is thrown overboard, the sea calms and scripture tells us that the men on the boat begin to believe in Jonah's God. They see that, oh my God, this person that we just threw overboard what he said actually came to pass. So maybe there is something to this God that Jonah is running from right. The Lord was able to demonstrate his power to perform a miracle once Jonah decided to obey God right. It's one of those. All things work together for the good right.
Speaker 1:Even when you're running from God, the purpose on your life sometimes still works for the benefit of others, even when you're out of alignment. Right, the hearts of the men were turned toward Jonah's God once he acknowledged his wrong Right, and so one of the things that we have to do is we have to realign. We have to get our hearts and our minds recommitted to what God has called us to do, right. Many times when we're out of alignment, there's chaos in our lives. When we're out of alignment, our purpose is never. It never fits. Like something is always off, like whenever we're not fully operating on what God has called us to do. Like we're not fully satisfied. Like we go to bed but we're not able to rest. We know we feel like something is missing, like there has to be more to life than this right, and then other times, whenever you're not spiritually aligned, it seems like you can never really get traction, you can never really find the spiritual pace to your life right. But there are three things that I think can help us whenever we are out of alignment and whenever we're seeking to realign right.
Speaker 1:The first thing we have to do is we just have to recognize where we are right. When we look at Jonah, chapter one, jonah he recognized that he was in the wrong place. He recognized that she was in the wrong place. He saw the impact of his actions. He saw that his disobedience was leading to the downfall of others. And so when you recognize that you're honest with yourself, then you can begin the process of realignment. Ok, so that's the first thing we have to do. Second thing we have to do is we have to repent with full ownership.
Speaker 1:When you look at Jonah, chapter two, jonah was rescued in the belly of the fish. So in that entire chapter it talks about Jonah praying to God. He repents of everything that he does, and he even says my salvation comes from God alone. Right, he understands that the only person who is capable of saving him is God himself. So he repents of his disobedience, he repents of his slowfulness, he repents of everything that he's done that has caused the dangerous situations of those that he was connected to. And then the last thing that you have to do is you just have to rebuild your walk with God right. Your yes has to be a daily decision. Do it step by step, day by day, and as you rebuild your walk with God that realigns you and redirects you back to where God wants you to be, because realignment is simply repentance plus redirection All right. When you have a change of mind, right metanoia, then God is able to redirect you back on the path that you were originally supposed to be on, right. And so when we look at Jonah, you know Jonah spent three days in the in the well, and when Jonah was spent out of the well, right it. Basically he made up a three days journey in one day, all right. And so I think it's it's really important again that we recognize where we are, repent with full ownership and then rebuild our daily walk with God right Now.
Speaker 1:Whenever I look at my life and whenever I look at how interesting my life has taken and the turns that it's gone, many part of the reason why this story is so interesting and impactful to my life is because I was like, gentlemen, the disobedient part, the delayed part, that part of not doing what you know God is calling you to do, right, those are the areas, those are the things that really delay those the call of God being fulfilled in your life. Many times it's knowing it's stepping out on faith, right, those are the areas that is the thing that really, really, really keeps us from moving forward. Man, I just remember God asking me to really start to trust him with the gifts that he's given me, and going and setting up opportunities for, for worship, setting up opportunities to be used by him. And because I was so afraid, I ran. I ran just by not doing what I was supposed to do not studying, not worshiping, just being completely disobedient, being connected with people that I knew I wasn't supposed to. And so what God eventually did was he allowed me to bear the bad crops that I had sown, right.
Speaker 1:And so what ended up happening is I had to repent. I had to, you know, suffer and mature through those those bad crops, right, it took years for me to really really get to the place, to where God wanted me to be. You know, I'm seeing the wisdom and the benefit of those times and of me reconnecting to God. But I'm telling you, like God is gracious, right, he loves us so much that he will always give us a way back to him, like he's never going to turn his back on us. But again, we have to, um, we have to just return it to him. Right, we really can try to run, we can try to be disobedient, we can try, um, to avoid what God wants us to do, but we can't hide God always will give us an opportunity, every single time, to return back to him, all right.
Speaker 1:So here is what I want you to do. Here is your takeaway, here is your, I guess, homework or assignment. Right, I want you to think about what a yes to God looks like. Right, what does a yes to God look like in your life, when you pray, when you look at your life, if you fully committed and said yes to God, to what he has called you to do, what he has spoken over you in your prayer time, do what he has spoken over you in your prayer time, in your secret time, what would a fully committed yes to God look like? All right, and so I want you to write that down. I want you to like, recommit and write a yes prayer to God right, one that is a surrender, the one that is one of a vine, and then share that with someone, that that you're walking this journey with right. Let them know that, hey, I've decided to to recommit my heart and recommit my morning. Okay, all right, and see how that starts you on the journey back to purpose and that you're able to fully realize what God has envisioned for you to do. All right, so that's it. That's today's episode. Again, thank you so much for listening and tuning in.
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