Often, in life, we feel we are not enough or just maybe don't measure up. This feeling comes in all forms: jobs, family life, sports, emotions, intellect, physical appearance, etc. The massive onset of social media has yet to help our confidence in ourselves. We are on campuses weekly through FCA, and the stress and pressure on students alone due to their feeling of unworthiness is mind-boggling. Although we all know those pictures we see on social media are probably the 40th picture taken with all types of filters—for example, the family photo. Now, moms, let's all be honest. Who does not, in the end, threaten everyone within an inch of their life if they don't be still and smile normally or maybe resort to bribery? I've done both. If you have never experienced rising emotion in a family picture, know you are in a small minority. The point is we are constantly bombarded by things that make us feel inept in whatever role we try to fulfill. When we allow these feelings to overwhelm us, we are paralyzed from carrying out our God-fulfilled purpose. During my devotion time, I was encouraged by a very small, what some might deem insignificant verse in Luke 2:24 

When Mary and Joseph entered the temple to offer their sacrifice after Jesus was born, it was customary for the woman to offer a lamb and then a dove or pigeon; however, if finances were low, they could present two turtledoves or pigeons. Mary brought two birds to be sacrificed. So, as Mary entered the temple, people would have looked at them as poor, maybe even pitying them for not being able to afford to offer the lamb. Wow, how ironic is this? Mary has THE sacrificial lamb in her care, yet she is deemed poor because others' eyes cannot see his deity. Mary was chosen because God believed her worthy of such an unimaginable task. Yet there she was, offering what others more fortunate would consider insufficient.

Jesus did not come like many imagined he would or wanted him to, and that is why so many people ended up missing the Savior who stood right before them. But are we any different? Don't we miss what He is offering in our pursuit of the world? The word of God declares over us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. It states, "While we were yet sinners. Christ died for us." For God loved us so much he sent his one and only son. He tells us not to fear, for he has redeemed and summoned us by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God. 
We are always enough in Christ for whatever he has called us to do. We need to open our mouths and speak it over our lives, our children's lives, and anyone else we know struggling. The enemy would love nothing better than for us to believe we are a nobody with nothing to offer, but scripture is TRUTH, and it says we are more than conquerors!  Sometimes when we pray, God answers our prayers in a way that we don't like or maybe even understand. That is when we tie a knot in our rope and hang on believing the scripture proclaiming, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 

May God give you strength today to find whatever courage, strength, or belief you need to continue doing what He has assigned in your life. 

​

We came across a little country church in the woods and stopped to peek inside this historical landmark. Braylon whispered, “I think we should come here to church on Sunday.” Usually, we sing or listen to a message when we travel, but something draws me to this little church. So, on Sunday morning, we attended. We entered the small, meager door to a congregation of about 35, which were very mature in years. The benches were wooden with no padding, the wooden floors creaked with each step, and the lighting was dim, but the people seemed friendly. We took our place by sliding in on the back row as a man rose to the front of the church with his grey hair and bright Hawaiian shirt. He instructed us to take the tiny red hymnals from the back of the pew while the voluntary choir came forward. We landed on several old hymns that we were all familiar with and sang along.
From what I gathered, the former pastor had recently passed away, and in his place was a visiting minister. He asked us to open our bibles to John 6. I was so disappointed because I was eagerly searching for an answer this very weekend and couldn’t see how these highly familiar passages of fish and bread would help me with the answer. But that is the wonder of the Bible. It is a fresh Word from the Lord repeatedly.
 
He began his sermon with his end point, “If God has commanded you to do something, he’s already provided the means to do it.”
 
From the start, Jesus turned to Philip, a loyal disciple, and asked a straightforward question.
“5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Jesus never asks because he needs the information, He always ask for our benefit. With Philips's intimate knowledge of all the miracles, we might expect him to say, “Lord, it is through you these men will be fed.” It is also interesting that Jesus never said how will we pay for the bread, only where should we purchase it. This again emphasizes He knew where the provision rested. Philip answers instead, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” I could feel Philip’s stress rising and radiating out of the scripture, thinking about the number of people to feed, the cost, the dollar amount in their funds, and disappointing people. Immediately, even though Philip saw all the miracles, including the water turning to wine, he erred. He turns to money and the abilities of men to meet the problem instead of seeing His Lord in all His power before him. Philip's vision was one of panic and scarcity, not fulfillment. The statement hit me like a ton of bricks. Indeed, I had heard this before, but on this day, someone might as well have slapped it on my forehead. Philip was trying to skip ahead and focus on what he felt he could control or have answers for. He wasn’t answering the right question, the who, and was only trying to find the answer of how! Looking ahead to the how before we have established the Who can become chaotic and downright terrifying.
 
We tend to think of the worst-case scenario of how much it will cost us (starving, tattered in rags, homeless, time strain) rather than abundance, as the verse states in Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.
Why is that? Do we not sing of God’s wondrous works, kindness, and love for us? Have we failed to read the stories of all the nobodies who were somebodies because of God? If we’ve read all these things, do we believe it?  The problem always lies with us, never God. He is ready to take the steps with us, but we are holding on to the railing for dear life. We are a lot like the man in Mark who cried out, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
Matthew Henry states, “We are inclined to distrust God's power when visible and ordinary means fail, that is, to trust him no further than we can see him.”
 
Interestingly enough, Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” They were in the desert, yet in this particular place grass was abundant for them to rest, which could be considered provision one. When Jesus asked them to sit, there was nothing to feed them. The miracle had not yet been performed, but they were positioning themselves for provision by sitting in obedience.  Maybe our problem is that we don’t position ourselves often enough to sit back and watch the Lord deliver. What if we just stepped out in faith? What if we found the courage to say, Lord, I’m here. George Muller was a man of great faith. One of his miracles reminded me so much of the fish and loaves.  This recounts just one of the hundreds of miracles he experienced.
 
“The children are dressed and ready for school. But there is no food for them to eat,” the housemother of the orphanage informed George Mueller. George asked her to take the 300 children into the dining room and have them sit at the tables. He thanked God for the food and waited. George knew God would provide food for the children as he always did. Within minutes, a baker knocked on the door. “Mr. Mueller,” he said, “last night I could not sleep. Somehow, I knew that you would need bread this morning. I got up and baked three batches for you. I will bring it in.”  Soon, there was another knock at the door. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. The milk would spoil by the time the wheel was fixed. He asked George if he could use some free milk. George smiled as the milkman brought in ten large cans of milk. It was just enough for the 300 thirsty children."
 
What if we had the faith and courage to sit at the table and watch the Lord provide? 
 
 
 

One of the greatest needs in life is to have someone in your corner willing to push you because they know you are capable of more. They will not allow you to slack, nor will they allow you to perform mediocre.

The greatest risk in life is stopping when things get hard, being distracted by our circumstances instead of pushing on to do all we were called to do.

The thing about time is that we can't get it back, and we can't make more. However, the Lord has a way to redeem it, according to Joel 2:25 “I will restore the years that the locust has eaten” Although he meant this in a physical sense, we can also take it spiritually. 

Colin Smith writes this great article. 

Money can be restored. Property can be restored—broken-down cars, stripped painting, old houses. Relationships can be restored. But one thing that can never be restored is time. Time flies and it does not return. Years pass and we never get them back.
Yet God promises the impossible: “I will restore the years that the locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25). The immediate meaning of this promise is clear. God’s people had suffered the complete destruction of their entire harvest through swarms of locusts that marched like an insect army through the fields, destroying the crops, multiplying their number as they went.

For four consecutive years, the harvest was completely wiped out. God’s people were brought to their knees in more ways than one. But “the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people.” God said, “Behold I am sending to you grain, wine and oil, and you will be satisfied (Joel 2:18-19).
In the coming years, God said, their fields would yield an abundance that would make up for what had been lost: “The threshing floor shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. . . . You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied” (Joel 2:24, 26).
This wonderful promise for those people meant that years of abundant harvests would follow the years of desolation brought about by the locusts.
But God has also put this promise in the Bible for us today.
Lost Years of Our LivesWhat do “lost years” look like for us? Lost years (or locust years) are years that you can’t get back, and they come in many varieties.
Lost years are fruitless years. A lot of hard work was done in the years the locusts had eaten. After everything was destroyed, the people must have thought, All this work and what do I have to show for it? Some of you know this pain in the world of business—a failed venture, a bad investment, a misguided policy, and all the effort that you put in day-by-day, month-by-month, year-by-year led only to massive disappointment. You think, What has come of all my time and all my effort? 
Lost years are painful years. I’m thinking of those who have lost a loved one. You had plans for the future, but now you fear the coming years may be empty. I’m thinking also of those who live with illness in the body or the mind. You assumed that you would always be able to do what you used to do. You have to find a way to live with the disappointment that you cannot.
Lost years are selfish years. Here’s a story that’s been repeated thousands of times. There’s a person (let’s call him Jim) who made a commitment to Christ, but it didn’t run deep. Faith in Jesus was a slice of the big pie of his busy life, filled with all the things that Jim wanted to pursue. Then one day, God gets hold of Jim. He is spiritually awakened. He says to himself, What in the world have I been doing? There’s no substance in my life. I really want it to count for Christ. I want to live in the power of the Spirit. I want to make a difference in the world, but the locusts have eaten half my life! I’ve wasted my years on myself.
Lost years are loveless years. A division comes to a family, alienating loved ones. Children grow up, and those years cannot be recovered. A marriage quietly endures in which love has been burning low for many years. You see a couple who are really in love, and you say, “I wish I could be loved like that.” Or you have not yet met the person you would like to meet. It feels like the years are moving on. You can never get them back. The locusts have eaten them.
Lost years are rebellious years. Perhaps you grew up with many blessings, but in your heart you wanted to rebel. You didn’t fully understand this urge, but you gave yourself to it. Instead of bringing you pleasure, rebellion brought you pain. Now you look back on those years with regret, the years that the locusts have eaten.
Lost years are misdirected years. The path you chose in your career or at college was a dead end. You just didn’t fit. Often in your mind, and sometimes in your conversation, you say, “How did I end up here? If only. . . . If only I had made that move. . . . If only I had taken that opportunity. . . . If only I had chosen a different path.” But the moment has passed. It’s gone. You can’t go back to it. You’re left with locust years.
Lost years are Christ-less years. All Christ-less years are locust years. This point is worth thinking about if you have not yet made a commitment to Christ. Ask anyone who came to faith in Christ later in life, and they will tell you that they wish they’d come to Christ sooner than they did: “How much foolishness I would have avoided. How much more good might have been done through my life.”
How God Restores Lost YearsTake heart! There is hope, because God can restore your lost, locust years. He does so in three ways.
God can restore lost years by deepening your communion with Christ. “You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God” (Joel 2:27). These people, who have endured so much, enjoy a communion with the Lord that is far greater than anything they had ever known before in their religious lives. Christ can restore lost years by deepening your fellowship with him.
Why not ask him for this? Tell him, “Lord, I have spent too many years without you, too many years at a distance from you. Fill my heart with love and gratitude for Christ. Let the loss of these years make my love for Christ greater than it would ever have been. Restore to me the years the locusts have eaten. “
God can restore lost years by multiplying your fruitfulness. The harvests for these people had been wiped out for four years, but God restored the years that the locusts had eaten by giving bumper harvests.
This provision makes me think about the parable where Jesus spoke about a harvest that could be 30-, 60-, or 100-fold. There’s a huge difference between these three harvests. Three years at 100-fold is as much fruit as a decade at 30-fold.
Why not ask him for this? “Lord, the locusts have eaten too many years of our lives. You have called us as your disciples to bear fruit that will last. Too many fruitless years have passed. Now Lord, we ask of you, give us some years now in which more lasting fruit will be born than in all of our years of small harvests.”
God can restore lost years by bringing long-term gain from short-term loss. The effect of these great trials in your life will be that “the tested genuineness of your faith . . . may result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). The praise, glory, and honor go to Christ because his power guarded you and kept you through the hardest years of your life.
Thinking about “years that the locust has eaten,” years that have been taken, I think of something Isaiah said about our Lord Jesus: “He was cut off out of the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8).
Here was the Lord Jesus in the prime of life. He was three years into his ministry at 33 years old. You would think that a man launching a new enterprise at the age of 33 has everything in front of him. But Isaiah says, “He was cut off.” He was cut off because he came under the judgment of God, not for his own sins—because he had none—but for ours.
Our sins, our grief, our sorrows, were laid on him. Our judgment fell on him. Our locusts swarmed all over him. The life of God’s tender shoot was “cut off.” Then, on the third day, the Son of God rose in the power of an eternal life. He offers himself to you, and he says what no one else can ever say: “I will restore the years that the locusts have eaten.”

​Lent is fast approaching, with Ash Wednesday being this week. My focus has been on what to give up, but as we sang this song yesterday, Christ Be Magnified, I felt an overwhelming conviction of what I need to add instead. We sang the following lyrics, and I thought, are we serious about this, or is this just lip service? 
 
I won't bow to idols, I'll stand strong and worship You
And if it puts me in the fire, I'll rejoice 'cause You're there too
I won't be formed by feelings, I hold fast to what is true
If the cross brings transformation then I'll be crucified with You
'Cause death is just the doorway into resurrection life
And if I join You in Your suffering then I'll join You when You rise
And when You return in glory with all the angels and the saints
My heart will still be singing and my song will be the same
 
These are very strong statements. We think we mean it when we sing, but sometimes, when tested, it’s not what our life shows. For example, “if it puts me in the fire, I’ll rejoice 'cause you’re there too. If the cross brings transformation then I’ll be crucified with you" I'm not sure this would be the case for most professing Christians. We teach a lot about loving, avoiding sins, honor, and worship, but we lack instruction and study on how to suffer well. No one wants to suffer, so I feel like this is why we avoid the discussion and hope it never happens to us. 
 
When my sweet daddy died, I had been in ministry for years, but I wasn't prepared for the test that would assault my faith. In my case, it wasn't his death exactly, but rather how he died, alone and isolated with Covid. We grew up with the gospel that the Lord has numbered our days and appointed all men a time to die. However, never once did I think my daddy would pass from this earth without all his family gathered around him, singing him into his appointed place in heaven. Instead, he was in a hospital bed, and we watched by phone or messages in his last days, unable to kiss his cheek or hold his hand. Nothing about this seemed fair or right for a man who had served God all his life. It rocked me to the very core. Satan hurled flaming arrows of doubt, anger, and bitterness at me constantly. The Lord would eventually walk me through emotions I never dreamed I would have. It was so powerful. He called me to write a book about how sometimes it's okay not to be okay. As Christians, we can push ourselves not to have feelings because we think that is showing a lack of faith when, in essence, it's expressing our humanness that needs a Savior. My book In the Deep Water is very detailed about the questions I had for God and the statements I made to him. The good news is God is big enough for all our emotions, and he will never forsake or leave us when we have them! One of the biggest truths I learned was that no matter how we live our lives, we are not immune to suffering because we live in a fallen world. I know somewhere in my brain I knew that mentally, but it wasn't until I felt suffering physically and emotionally that I understood how hard it is to deal with. 
 
I hope this Lent season I will not be like the verses in Matthew or Malachi where the people were offering a lip service and sub-par sacrifices. Their lips and hands were in action, but their hearts were distant and unavailable.  In the Lent season my goal is to dive deeper into seeking God first. Before I try to figure it out, before I tell a friend or post about it, really seek Him whole heartedly.  God has to be enough. He has to be enough to get you through crazy kids, a bad marriage, a bad report, a financial disaster, strained relationships, loss, and the list goes on.
 
Matthew 15:8:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules.’

Malachi 1:8 
 8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.

I love the Old Gospel Song Precious memories by J.F.B. Wright. 
Precious mem'ries, unseen angels,
Sent from somewhere to my soul;
How they linger, ever near me,
And the sacred past unfold.
Refrain:
Precious mem'ries, how they linger,
How they ever flood my soul
In the stillness of the midnight,
Precious, sacred scenes unfold.

I sat in the doctor's office on Wednesday. We were in this small holding room for about an hour, so I became acquainted with these two older ladies to my right and left. They were talking about their grown children, weddings, and the world in general, just many memories from their lives. One of the ladies had her mom sitting beside her. From all the evidence, I believe either dementia or Alzheimer's was at play. She would constantly remind her where she was and what she had done and describe the people she was talking about to jog her memory. Later on that night, while resting on the couch, I had a memory pop up of my sweet daddy. I was wearing his watch, and it said, "Counting down the minutes until you are wearing this again." The memory went straight to my heart's tender place. I thought, why does Facebook remind me of all the pain we felt? But almost instantly, my mind returned to the waiting room and the lady sitting to my left. It sent a dagger through my heart, thinking of how painful it would be to have someone physically, but their memories be lost in time mentally. I thanked God for the memory He allowed me to have and even for the pain, which meant I experienced great love. I prayed for the woman who was facing a monumental heartache in her care for her mother.

It was a reminder that Christmas is a time to love one another more deeply. It's during this time when losses and troubled situations seem exponentially more enormous and the pain ever greater. However, it can also be an even bigger time of healing, love, and kindness. During this magical season, it always seems like our hearts are a little more open, tender, and forgiving. So, as we enter this time with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in hand, where can we be that light that shines for others? What blessing can we give the elderly who have no one this Christmas? What love can we show the children who are abandoned? What opportunity do we have to feed and clothe those with nothing? Where can we plant our roses, so they will bloom in December!

In God's word this is what He says in Mathew 25 (ESV),
"35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,[a] you did it to me.’

 Consider this. If you're going somewhere and you're off course by just one degree, after one foot, you'll miss your target by 0.2 inches. Trivial, right? But what about as you get farther out?

• After 100 yards, you'll be off by 5.2 feet. Not huge, but noticeable.
• After a mile, you'll be off by 92.2 feet. One degree is starting to make a difference.
• After traveling from San Francisco to L.A., you'll be off by 6 miles.
• If you were trying to get from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., you'd end up on the other side of Baltimore, 42.6 miles away.
• Traveling around the globe from Washington, DC, you'd miss by 435 miles and end up in Boston.
• In a rocket going to the moon, you'd be 4,169 miles off (nearly twice the diameter of the moon).
• Going to the sun, you'd miss by over 1.6 million miles (nearly twice the diameter of the sun).
• Traveling to the nearest star, you'd be off course by over 441 billion miles (120 times the distance from the earth to Pluto, or 4,745 times the distance from Earth to the sun).   Antone Roundy

I recently watched a documentary about a 1995 plane that experienced this fate. The pilot made a wrong input in the computer, leading the plane to start veering slightly off course. Because it was dark and the plane was going about five miles every minute, it didn't take long for them to be in serious trouble. They were flying into a small country whose radar was down. They had been receiving voice commands, but the problem was they weren't in the location the air traffic controller thought they were because of the previous error. It resulted in the plane being too low, coming in for what they thought was a landing, and crashing into the side of the mountain. One error set off a chain of events, leading to other mistakes and eventually 160 people's death. 

Have you ever wondered how in the world you got so off course? It could be with your career, kids, weight, health, or financial crisis; the list is endless. Maybe that chocolate brownie you started eating for dessert has turned into every night, and your clothes don't fit. Perhaps you are now in 50,000 dollars of debt after you took out one credit card. You may wonder how you got to this place in your career when you should be entirely somewhere else. It's astonishing that something that seems insignificant, one small thing, can lead to such a huge problem. The same principle can also apply to spiritual life. Most people don't set out to stray from the Lord, but getting preoccupied with life can allow us to move in a direction that does not bring us closer. For example, first, our prayer life might slip because we are just too tired, then reading the Word is sparse because we are so busy, then the kids have so much stuff we are skipping church. My friend, that is what you call a slippery slope. If you checked back in on this person in a year, if they stayed on the same path 9/10 times, they are now not praying at all, not reading their bible, basically not going to church at all, and lastly, not being bothered by any of it. The gulf has grown so gradually it has barely been noticed.  

There are numerous examples in the Bible where one wrong choice sets off a negative chain of events.

Sarai devised a plan to have a son through her housemaid Hagar instead of waiting on God's promise to make Abram a Father of many nations. Abram is persuaded to follow the plan, leading to jealousy, hatred, and heartache. 10 Sarah said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman! Get rid of her son! That woman’s son will never have a share of the family’s property. All of it belongs to my son Isaac.” 11 What Sarah said upset Abraham very much. After all, Ishmael was his son.


Because he did not go to battle, David caught a glimpse of a beautiful woman from the rooftop. The one decision to stay home led to a death of an innocent man, a child dying, and David with a remorseful heart. 2 Samuel 11 In the spring when the kings normally went out to war, David sent out Joab, his servants, and all the Israelites. They destroyed the Ammonites and attacked the city of Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem.

Samson had an attitude of pride and arrogance that led to his downfall. One writer penned this about Samson. Samson's ethnicity, role, and family heritage in no way helped him to live a life pleasing to God. In the same way, we can go to church, serve and do the right things; and be off off course. The life of Samson cautions us that hearts left unchecked and uncontrolled, given in to pride and lust, can lead us to disaster.
https://www.thefellowship.site/archives/samson-strength-and-weakness/samsons-fall-lust-and-grace

This writing is to remind us that small choices eventually, over time, compile what our life becomes. 

“The real cost of a four-dollar-a-day coffee habit over 20 years is $51,833.79. That’s the power of the Compound Effect.”


 We must choose wisely every day!


Proverbs 4:25-27
Let your eyes look straight ahead;
    fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Give careful thought to the[a] paths for your feet
    and be steadfast in all your ways.
27 Do not turn to the right or the left;
    keep your foot from evil.​

​Lately, I have been studying Jonah. Before you tune me out, I've heard this a thousand times. Today I want you to look at this book differently. What about the people on the boat? These people were living everyday life traveling as they did daily by water, but on this day, a storm that even frightened the sailors blew up. This was a cargo ship. People depended on it for their lively hood and desperately started throwing things overboard. Who would be responsible for these items lost? There were no insurance policies or guarantee programs. It would be the merchants who would lose valuables, money, and maybe even their lives. 
 
When reading the story, I have always considered Jonah's thoughts, feelings, and consequences, but not those around him. His disobedience carried significant ramifications for everyone on the boat. People suffered because of Jonah's disobedience, and he was initially oblivious to the wind. The other passengers weren't doing wrong, they weren't going in the wrong direction, nor were they on the wrong boat, yet still, they were adversely affected by his sin. Dharious Daniels said, "Sometimes people make us responsible for their irresponsibility."  Look at Jonah's story. They were panicking, throwing valuables overboard, and worrying about the problem, all while Jonah slept. These people had taken on responsibility for his irresponsibility. 
 
Sometimes we may not have a choice but to have the person in our life, we may not even realize they are on the wrong boat, but sometimes we harbor people on purpose that cause havoc. Those we harbor, we make excuses for, enable, and disregard their reckless behavior. Occasionally, we need to jump out of the boat they are in or push them out of ours. Nothing is worse than taking responsibility for someone else's mess. As soon as they threw Jonah off, their world calmed. Don't get me wrong; they still took on damage because sin always leaves its mark, BUT GOD....... he provided safety for the crew, and even a Whale which represents grace to Jonah.  
 
12 “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.”13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 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.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
We all need to think about how our sin affects those around us. Five years ago, two children were suffering greatly. One lady talked about giving one of the children a bath in the sink at daycare, while the other was three and could not speak. These children were 18 months and three years and had not made any decisions that led them to where they were; however, plenty of adults had made poor choices for them. These kids were metaphorically on the wrong boat reaping the horrific consequences of sin. The Lord provides, not through a whale in this case, but a different home. Here is the thing about the rescue the people had no idea they were even being sent on a mission. They minded their own business doing children’s ministry and policing, with NO plans to increase their family, BUT GOD...... The Lord asked for a slight favor of three weeks in the form of a DHR worker, even though they have never been to foster care classes. He knew where they were in life and asking for the whole thing at once would have maybe sent them into disobedience with a no or at the very least overwhelmed them completely. This week the little boy who could not speak accepted Christ as his Savior. This was the Lord’s plan of Grace and Mercy for him. I know this because this is our story. I contribute so much of his salvation to a small country church were so many people have poured into his little life. They have taught him the bible, but are always mixing in plenty of love with it.  It doesn’t matter what you have planned because God’s ways are not always our ways nor His thoughts our thoughts.
 
There are two things you can be in this story, either the Whale who is used by God for grace and mercy, or the one who needs to be thrown overboard because they are causing havoc for all those around them. God certainly wants us to be the first!
 
 
Genesis 50:20
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.