In the Belly of the Fish

 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2He said:  

“In my distress I called to the Lord,   

   and he answered me.

From the deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,   

   and you listened to my cry.

3You hurled me into the depths,    

    into the very heart of the seas,     

   and the currents swirled about me;

All your waves and breakers     

   swept over me.

4I said, ‘I have been banished   

   from your sight;

Yet I will look again     

   toward your holy temple.’

5The engulfing waters threatened me,     

   the deep surrounded me;    

   seaweed was wrapped around my head.

6To the roots of the mountains I sank down;    

   the earth beneath barred me in forever

But you, Lord my God,    

   brought my life up from the pit. 

This last month we have been looking at the Book of Jonah during our Bible Studies and I wanted to share some insight with you from one of the guys inside.

 “Jonah is just like me. I ran from God, not because he told me to go anywhere or do anything, I just did stuff outside of him. Now I’m in the fish. I’m here in the pit, calling out to him every day that he will deliver me and I know that he will. Soon I’ll hit parole, I’ll be vomited out onto the dry land and then I will go and do what I am called to do. When we live in the belly of the fish, we know that the only place we can go is with God. So, I’m doing my time and then, when I get out, I’ll find a church and I keep going with God.”

This insight was amazing to us who were in the room. How often do we on the outside think about being inside the fish? For us, if we do, it is, at best, a metaphor, but for these folks that we serve, the fish is real and the prayer of Jonah above is real. It is known that God will deliver us from the fish, from the pit, from whatever it is that is threatening us when we are engulfed in our own stuff.

Friends, I want to thank you for not being like Jonah. He wants to lock up Nineveh and throw away the key. He wants God to knock them out of the world, out of his life, and make sure they know that God is not with them. You, you aren’t Jonah. I thank you for your continued support as we go in to learn and grow with our siblings in Christ who live behind the fences and walls of Montana State Prison. Let us share peace with them and pray that one day they will be “vomited out onto the dry land” and we will help them continue their callings.