Many of us know what a compass is for. A compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. (Wikipedia)
Nowadays, many people are lost in their lives.
They keep on doing things without knowing its consequences.
They keep on expressing their thoughts without thinking of its effects to other people.
They seemed to have no DIRECTION in LIFE.
There was once this man named Jonah.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.”
They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
“Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. (Jonah 1:1-7, 2:1, 3:1-10)
All we need is a COMPASS that will guide us.
NORTH: Noble and vivid picture of the Vision
SOUTH: Strong-willed and focused
WEST: Wise and values truth
EAST: Expresses genuine LOVE
In the story, Jonah was so afraid of the Ninevites because they have been an enemy to them. He was so afraid that they might kill him but on the other hand, Jonah doesn't want God to forgive the Ninevites. He knew God is a merciful God and so for him, because the Ninevites are their enemies, they don't deserve Gods forgiveness and they should be killed.
Jonah is like us.
People who have lost our sense of direction and purpose in life.
People who believed in ourselves more than surrendering to His fantastic purpose for us.
People who have loved ourselves more than others.
Most of the time, because we know that whenever we will do something good to others, we are afraid to do it because maybe we are afraid to be described "corny" because most people around us nowadays tend to describe the people who do good as "corny". Or maybe, we are afraid that in giving everything to others, we might not gain something from it. We tend to become selfish. We tend to want all the things around us. Or maybe, because we are called to do good to our enemies, we tend to go away with it because we believe that our enemies deserve those bad things and they don't deserve our help.
Corruption, abuse of power, selfishness, and many other bad things that happen to us nowadays are rooted in this simple reasons, reasons of pain.
We tend to be "undirected" because of this pain, pain of unworthiness.
We tend to hurt others because we feel this pain, pain of rejection.
Every pain in our life is a result of a DEEP DESIRE of LOVE in our hearts.
Because of these pain, we tend to find alternative "prizes" in order to ease the pain but these alternatives are just temporary.
What we need is a permanent prize...
The Permanent Prize
Let me introduce the permanent prize in a story.
One day a monk went to cleanse himself in the river. While doing so he noticed a scorpion struggling in the water. Knowing that scorpions can’t swim, the monk knew if he did not save the scorpion, it would drown. Thus, carefully picking up the scorpion, the monk rescued it from drowning. And as he was just about to set it down, the scorpion stung his finger. In pain, the monk drew back his hand and the scorpion went flying, back into the river. As soon as the monk regained his composure, he again lifted the scorpion out of the water. Again, before he could set the scorpion down, the creature stung him. This drama lasted for several minutes.
A hunter watched this routine, wherein the monk would carefully and gingerly lift the creature out of the water to yet again fling it back in the water again. While at the same time also convulsing from the pain unleashed by each fresh sting. Eventually, unable to hold onto his curiosity the hunter said to the monk, “Excuse me for my outspokenness, but it is clear the scorpion is simply going to sting you each time you try to carry it to safety. So, why don’t you just give up on it and let it drown”?
To this the monk replied: “My dear child, the scorpion is not stinging me out of malice or evil intent. Just as it is the water’s nature to make me wet, so it is the scorpion’s nature to sting. He doesn’t understand that I am getting him to safety. Quite simply, there is a level of conscious comprehension greater than what his brain can accomplish. But, just as it is the scorpion’s nature to sting, so it is my nature to save. Just as he is not leaving his nature, why should i leave my nature? My dharma is to help every creature – human or animal. Then why should I let a small scorpion rob me of the divine nature which I have gained through years of sadhana (penance)?”
(taken at: http://basantnayar.newsvine.com/_news/2010/10/27/5361301-the-story-of-the-monk-and-the-scorpion)
Just like in the story, it is in our nature, because of our imperfection, to sometimes do bad things but it is also in God's nature, though hurt in the things we have done, to love us perfectly even of the perfections that we have. THIS IS THE PERMANENT PRIZE, HIS LOVE FOR US.
Even we are imperfect, God is hopeful that one day, we will just surrender to His wonderful love for us. And because we are His children, we also have the nature to love.
This is what God call us to do, to love other people as God loved us. In this process, we are able to heal ourselves through Him and we are able to lead others, though we might think that we are not qualified leaders. Remember, God always call the weak to lead the strong.
Conclusion
Many times in our life, we experience pain. We experience great storms. we experience torrential rain. We experience disasters in life and because of this, some of us run away from it and some, they just give up. My friend, remember the story of Jonah? God did not use the storm to kill Jonah or the sailors Instead, this is a REDIRECTION because God has a more fantastic, overwhelming, wonderful, colorful plans in store for him. This also applies to us and if we will just surrender to His redirection, we will be RESTORED, EMPOWERED, and be VICTORIOUS IN LIFE.
Friend, remember that every storm is an opportunity given to us by God not to fail in life. He does not want us to fail! He allowed these storms to happen in life not because He is mad at us. God allowed these storms to happen because He wants to BRING OUT THE BEST in OURSELVES and help OTHERS TO BRING OUT THE BEST in them because we cannot encourage others if we are not encouraged.
God wants the best for us and He wants us to be successful in life because He love us! Look at the problem not as resistance but as redirection and restoration and being the best not just being successful but also helping others by sharing and giving the LOVE of God that we have experience. It does not need to be complicated things but Constant Simple and Random act of Kindness to others are the best things we can do to shoe our love to other people, not just toward our friends but also toward our enemies.
Be Blessed!
