The story of Jonah is much deeper than merely a prophet being swallowed by a great fish. It is a story that exemplifies our sinful human nature. Sometimes we Christians have been known to suffer from what we might call the “Jonah syndrome.” It’s not caused by a contagious virus, but by sin and sin’s virulent mutation, selfishness. Having experienced God’s love and forgiveness, we become turned in upon ourselves. We see something bad happen and we think that those people deserved it. Sometimes we even wish that God would “get those people for the bad things that they have done.” That’s where Jonah was at.

Our lives are often complicated and busy. Just think for a moment of all that you were involved in this past week. We put in our time at work. There are the daily chores; everything from preparing meals to doing the laundry, from doing the dishes to picking up after the kids, from picking up the mail to paying the bills. If your week was a normal week, there also were runs to the grocery store to pick up the day to day food items that we all need. Then there were special runs to pick up those things that you forgot. If you have kids at home, you went back and forth to school several times this past week. If the kids are involved in sports, there were extra trips. Then there are those other tasks, other involvements that we all have in our individual lives. We are busy in the community, busy at home. By the time that a normal week ends, we are tired.

With all the rush of the 30 or so days between Thanksgiving and Christmas there hardly seems as if there is any time to get into the “Christmas spirit.” But just what exactly is Christmas spirit? When we are younger we become energized by the building excitement that surrounds Christmas. Trees go up. Presents appear under the tree. Homes are decorated. For a child Christmas is the most special of the year. But as we grow older, it often becomes more and more difficult to get excited. We’ve been through it before. It’s a lot of work and more money spent on presents than we want to think about until after the New Year. The excitement is tempered by a growing credit card balance. The wonder of Christmas wanes as weariness sets in.

What are you thankful for? Looking at our lives and all the material possessions, all the physical blessings, and all the spiritual blessings we enjoy, it’s easy for us to be thankful to our God. The question is: What do we do with all that our Lord has entrusted to us? Do we simply say, “Thank you,” as we do when someone holds the door for us, or when someone does something nice for us? Are words enough? Dare our thanks be limited to only words? How can we express thanks to someone who has done so much for us?

Of all sinners who have ever lived, perhaps none understood the weight of his guilt more than Dr. Martin Luther. Early in his adult life his sins and failures tormented him to the point of misery. He himself describes that in one of his hymns. He writes, “Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay, Death brooded darkly o’er me, Sin was my torment night and day, in sin my mother bore me; Yea, deep and deeper still I fell, Life had become a living hell, so firmly sin possessed me.” No matter how hard Martin Luther tried, he couldn’t escape his guilty conscience until he came to understand that God’s relationship with us is not based upon his personal righteousness, but rather on the righteousness which God’s Son purchased for us on the cross.

Thoughts on Philippians 4:4ff
The Epistle lesson for Oct. 9

Perspective is the way a person looks at something. Look at the Grand Canyon from the heights of a lookout and you see the beauty and the wonder of the winding river canyon which God created. But stand at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and you can only see what’s right in front of you. What do you see when you look at your life? Perspective matters.