Ninevah

A Minute for Mission, shared with my parish in fall 2005

I always thought of Jonah as the guy who was swallowed by the whale. Then we bought my daughter the Veggie Tales version on DVD, with Archibald the Asparagus as Jonah, and Kahlil the caterpiller as his sidekick. Suddenly, Jonah was a very different story. It was all about God giving Jonah a new job, one he didn’t want, one out of his comfort zone, and what happened when he ran away (the whale), and what happened when he finally did what God had told him to do.

A couple of weeks ago, the story popped back into my head. I’d been having a lot of fun at work, and suddenly I got a new assignment. It was a great opportunity, but I wasn’t very happy about it. It was out of my comfort zone, it was expected to have lots of politics and
conflict, and it had meetings on Friday mornings. I’d been able to take Fridays off, or work from home on Fridays.

I was grumbling to myself on my way to work last week, and suddenly I remembered: Ninevah. In the movie, when Jonah finally did give the message of the Lord to the Ninevites, they changed their ways. Perhaps I could think of this new assignment as Ninevah. Not where I might choose to take my mission of teamwork and mutual respect – but a place that could certainly use what I had to offer.

Ninevah. Try it next time you’re sent out of your comfort zone.