Attitude Adjustment

For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. --Philippians 4:11b

My boss just got back from an Alaskan cruise.  He came back with stories and pictures, and a ton of work waiting for him at his desk.  Nevertheless, a co-worker and I were listening to him tell about the beautiful scenery, the people he was with, and the shore excursions he was going on.  At one point, he began to complain about how one shore excursion went wrong, and my co-worker interrupted him.

"First world problems," he said with a wave of his hand.  Then he walked away.

My friend was making a joke, but there is a lot of truth in what he said.  Much of what we choose to complain about would be quite welcome to 90% of the other people in the world.  They should be this lucky.

I thought of this when I read the second chapter of Jonah during my quiet time this week.  Here is the passage that stood out to me:

When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you in your holy temple.  Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.  But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you.  What I have vowed, I will make good.  Salvation comes from the Lord.  And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. --Jonah 2:7-10

This rich, joyful prayer of thanksgiving was spoken while Jonah was in the belly of the great fish.  Let me ask you:  if you were in similar circumstances, would your prayer include such words as "grace", "thanksgiving", and "salvation"?  I don't think that those would be the first words on my mind.  But it was only after Jonah prayed these words that he was delivered from his circumstances.

Attitude makes all the difference.  And in this passage, there are at least three attitudes that we should be aware of when we fall into circumstances beyond our control.

The attitude of prayerfulness
"When my life was ebbing away," Jonah said, "I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you in your holy temple."  If you remember the story, Jonah was trying to get away from God.  God had commanded Jonah to preach against the city of Ninevah, east of Jerusalem.  Nevertheless, Jonah went west to Joppa, which was a port on the Mediterranean Sea, and bought a ticket to Tarshish, most likely an outpost in Spain.  In other words, he wanted to go as far from God's will as he could go.  So when the boat encountered a storm, the sailors started throwing cargo overboard to lighten the load.  The storm got worse, and even the seasoned sailors were afraid.  They started calling on their gods to save them.  They woke up Jonah, who was asleep in the ship's hold, and begged him to pray to his God.  Jonah's God could indeed calm the storm, but first He required that Jonah be thrown overboard, as well.  The sailors refused at first, but desperate times call for desperate measures, so they all prayed that God would not hold the death of this man against them, and they threw Jonah into the sea.  The storm immediately subsided, and Jonah sank into the abyss.  He was swallowed up by a great fish, and I believe this fish started swimming east, the direction that God wanted him to go.

God hears our prayers, wherever we are.  Jonah was running away from God.  But there was nowhere to run.  Psalm 139:7 says, "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?"  The psalmist goes on to say, "If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there...if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast."

But when Jonah prayed for forgiveness, admitting that he had done wrong, God heard his prayers.  I'm sure that when God told the prophet that he should be thrown into the sea, Jonah thought that he was getting what he deserved.  It took faith for him to humble himself, and allow the sailors to toss him overboard.  He probably hoped that he would bob along the surface until an east-bound ship would see him, and rescue him.  But God had other plans.

God hears our prayers, even when we can't see.  There were storm clouds hiding the sun.  Whatever light that filtered into the water was dimming the deeper Jonah went.  And when the fish found him, forget being able to see!  There was no light in the belly of the beast.  There was nothing to do but pray.

Have you ever found yourself in a place of utter darkness?  A place where there is absolutely no light, no way out?  God may have put you there on purpose.  He knows you better than you know yourself.  Maybe if there was any way you could see to get yourself out of the situation, you would take it.  But if God wants you to surrender to His will, he will take all other options from you.  You will have no choice but to pray. The response we get to our prayers depends largely on the one to whom we are praying.

The attitude of grace

"Those who cling to worthless idols," Jonah said, "forfeit the grace that could be theirs."  Jonah could have been thinking about the sailors in the ship, who cried out to their gods to no avail.  They had no hope of salvation, no reliable anchor in the storm.  Or he could have been thinking of the people of Ninevah, against whom God had commanded him to preach.  They were headed toward certain death, because God had set His sights on them.  If only they knew the true God, then they could know true grace.

God gives grace to those who pray.  Because of Jonah's act of contrition, God showed mercy to him.  He deserved death, because he had turned his back on God.  But when he prayed, when he confessed his sin, God heard him and was gracious to him.  Jonah had asked the sailors to sacrifice himself so that they would be safe.  Psalm 51:17 says, "My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."  There is a praise and worship song based on this verse, and it goes something like this: "A broken heart and a contrite spirit You have yet to deny."  Several times in the Bible God says that He desires mercy rather than sacrifice.

Jonah was a type of Christ, in that his descent into the deep for three days resulted in the salvation of the sailors from the storm, and ultimately, after Jonah was "resurrected", resulted in the salvation of the people of Ninevah (Jonah chapter 3).  Ninevah heard the words of Jonah, and the entire city set a day of prayer and fasting so that the prophecy of Jonah (in forty days the great city will be destroyed) would not come to pass.  And God had grace on the people, much to Jonah's chagrin (Jonah chapter 4).

The grace afforded to us by God cannot be found outside of Him.  In the move Titanic, one scene shows a rich man trying to offer a bribe to one of the sailors so that he could be allowed onto the lifeboat with the women and children.  The sailor refused the bribe, because money was worthless to him--it could not buy him life.  What do you place your trust in?  Do you think you can reach heaven by your own goodness and godliness? "There is none righteous, no not one."  By your good works? "By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9).

People whom we may think are very gracious will talk about us behind our backs.  Religions other than Christianity do not offer grace--you must work your way to a better place, or those born to a higher caste have a better chance than the lower classes, or your hope resides in the whims of a capricious god.  Governments and institutions, charities and foundations--they can only give out what people put in by way of taxes, fees, or contributions.  When the funding runs out, they must stop dispensing favors, cash, or even good will.  There is no hope found in them.  There is nothing to be thankful for.

The attitude of thankfulness

Jonah said, "But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you.  What I have vowed I will make good.  Salvation comes from the Lord."  Remember, Jonah was in total darkness, slowly being digested by a huge fish, probably many fathoms below the surface of the ocean.  And he was singing?  Actually, that is not as far-fetched as it sounds.  There are stories of Prisoners of War who, while trying to maintain their sanity, would recite scriptures and hymns that they had learned as children.  Even in such trying times, we can remain thankful to God.

Be thankful for all things.  1Thessalonians 5:17 says, "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."  Wherever we find ourselves, whatever situation we are in, we can lift our spirits and find hope when we give thanks to God.  We can start by thanking Him for the good things we find, however small they might be.  We might start by thanking God that things are not worse than they are, for whatever our problems, there is always someone who is not as well off as we are.  "I cried because I had no shoes," the saying goes, "until I saw a man with no feet."  (First World problems, remember?)

The more thankful we are for small things, for good things, the more we can be thankful for bigger things, for what look like bad things.  With an attitude adjustment, we can stop griping about the way things are, and start thinking of our situation as a means by which God can get glory.  Are you in an impossible situation? Remember, nothing is impossible with God.  So if we step back and watch Him work, we can see how he works al things out for our good and for His glory.  Now that's worth singing about!