Have you ever found yourself in a predicament you couldn’t seem to get out of?  While you would like to blame others for your misfortune, truth be told, it was your fault you were stuck there (wherever your there is) in the first place.  We have a 6 month old puppy named Rufus.  He’s very sweet, loyal, and protective over our family.  Recently, he learned how to climb on to the top of his dog house.  The first time he did it he seemed to exude joy in the discovery only to realize he didn’t know how to get down.  My husband left him up there whining hoping he would learn how to get down later were he to ever do it again when we weren’t at home (which he did, and our neighbors rescued him).  Eventually he lost his footing and just fell off.  Thankfully, it was a short fall and he was fine.  But recently, his discovery served him well.  Even though he couldn’t get down, when our backyard recently began flooding he was able to escape the water until he could be helped.  What seemed like a curse was also a blessing for him.   

Have you ever considered that the great fish was actually God’s provision for Jonah?  Your yucky place might just be your place of provision.  In the beginning, while the storm was happening around him, he was sleeping.  Rather than deal with the reality of what God has commissioned him to do he chose to sleep and escape it all.  Upon waking, Jonah found himself in a storm in the heart of the sea with the current swirling all about him.  Then, God sent a great fish as provision.  Who would have thought a fish swallowing you would be considered God’s provision?  What he probably thought was yuck was actually better than the heart of the sea where he could have drown in the storm.  In the belly of the fish he prayed and God eventually delivered him.  He was there three days pulling himself together not really knowing if he would actually survive.  Jonah was so low in that moment he described it by stating, “…to the roots of the mountains I sank down” (Jonah 2:6).  After those three days, God commanded the release.  He was vomited out (which was not a pleasant process either) and went on to do what God had asked.

Often what seems like our place of pain can actually be our place of deliverance.  “These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him..” (I Peter 1:7-8)  Your yucky doesn’t seem so bad now, does it?