Here lie the collected musings of Nathan Dorey - Christ-follower, husband, father, coffee addict, web developer, musician, writer and that guy that talks too much. Come one, come all! Mind your step, excuse the mess and please do not feed the ego.
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Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Is this layout hard to read? I'm having trouble... but my screen lightness is up quite high (because of work) and my eyes just aren't what they used to be (probably because of work, too)... Somebody let me know if this one hurts your eyes too, and maybe tell me where the good layouts are, too? Annie stole the one I wanted, and considering that I make website for a living, I really can't be bothered making one for "fun" too...
Oh yeah, for the record, I won't always be as preachy and long-winded as this first post. (OK, maybe that's a lie, but you'll still come back, right?)
I'm planning on posting some of my favourite quotes, song lyrics (including some of my own songs, too) and random musings, too. I can be light and fluffy (or at least not harcore and challenging)...
Peace out
Hey hey!
Yes, I have a blog now! It may turn out to be wildly popular, or I may wind up only using this as a holding cell for the meandering, loutish thoughts that regularly escape from my mind (I've got to keep them somewhere...), but I'ma finally going to do it. What becomes of it, it would seem, is up to you, my loyal / sceptical / bored / offended reader.
Aaaanyway...
I figure that I should offer an explanation for the title of this blog - "We Are Jonah" (or "wearejonah" if you didn't think to mentally insert spaces into the URL). Well, it's basically a cross between an in-joke and a reminder. The only people part of the in-joke are me and God, but I've decided that I'll let you in, too. It all began long ago, with a bunch of nasty oppressors, a boat full of really wonderful fishermen, and a jerk-off named Jonah...
Y'all probably know the story. There's this guy, named Jonah, and he's a prophet - a man called by God to speak for him, tell others all about him, and basically act on behalf of God in a broken and messed up world. Well, God wants him to do something - to travel to Nineveh, the capital city of the people who have oppressed and enslaved his people, and warn them to shape up or get ready for a boot from the Creator. Well, Jonah hates these guys, and he's scared of 'em - so he says "actually, God, I have to be somewhere else now", and takes the first boat in the opposite direction of Nineveh. Basically, "no, I hate these guys and I want them to get what's coming to them". Yeah, really upstanding guy here, our Jonah.
Well, God is - understandably - kind of peeved at Jonah for essentially giving him the finger and leaving these people to their doom, and a furious storm beseiges the boat he's jumped on. He's not the only one on it, though - there's a bunch of completely innocent fishermen whose only crime was giving a lift to a stanger they met at the docks (which, as an aside, is probably a rather dangerous thing to do if you really think about it). So, Jonah's rebellion has doomed these guys, too.
You all must know the rest of the story - Jonah finally grows a pair and tells the guys to throw him out of the boat, sparing their innocent lives. There's a fish, an apology and the undoubtedly interesting sensation of being vomited up by a large sea-creature and swimming to shore. In the end, Jonah warns the Ninevites, they turn their lives around too, and God spares them. Everybody's happy. Now.
But this guy, Jonah, was a real piece of work. This man's purpose in life was to bless, to help, to speak words of truth and life. And instead, he rejected the people that God called him to help, and almost doomed a big bunch of people. He had a calling, and he perverted it by his own arrogance. The protagonists of the story aren't the good, wonderful people of God, but the ones on the outside that were shunned, hated and screwed over by the people of God. That's full on, man.
It's so full on that God's people - first the Jews and now we Christians - have a tradition of reading this story once a year and together declaring "We are Jonah, we are Jonah".
We are the people called by God to bring joy, hope, love and life to the world. We are the people who have rebelled and hurt the people we should care for. We aren't the "good" people while the rest of the world are "bad". We need to get off our high horses and look around and see and touch the world that needs to see and hear and feel God's love. We need to follow God into the world instead of secluding ourselves from it.
I am Jonah. If you're a Christian, odds are you're one too. If you don't make any claims to be following Jesus, and you feel more like the fishermen who were minding their own business when a "religious" person bursted into their world and started causing trouble, then you're in good company. If you've been hurt (and who hasn't?) by all the many ways that "Christians" have hurt when we should have healed, hated when we should have loved and condemned and rejected rather than accepted and cared, please accept my apology. I really am sorry for what we've done to the world. We are trying, but to be honest, it's really hard.
We are Jonah.
