on my way to Nineveh

I've been going to the women's Bible study at my church here at home in the 'Burg.  I wasn't planning on going, but decided last minute, about an hour before the first meeting, interestingly enough.  We're going through Priscilla Shirer's study on Jonah, a "life interrupted".  My life has been full of interruptions, or "divine interventions". Basically my plans don't go...well, according to plan! The story of my life, in the last few years at least, has been to let go of my need to plan, and to know what is coming. But I digress...

Basically you have Jonah, a prophet of Israel. He's all fine and good doing his daily thing, and then God says, "I want you to go to Nineveh to tell them about Me!" Nineveh, the place of Jonah's enemies, where they are really mean (understatement) and there's a good chance they'll kill you (not an understatement!). So we know the story. Jonah says "heck no!" and gets on the first ship bound the other direction and three times as far away.  A storm comes, they throw him overboard, he gets swallowed by a giant fish and given a second chance to complete the mission that God has called him to.  And he's obedient, the second time around.

During this study, Priscilla asked us to think about what our "Nineveh" is, the people we know God is telling us to reach out to but we are reluctant to.  For the longest time I wasn't really sure what that was for me. I'm just living at home, going to church.  All my family knows the Lord, who on earth do I have to "reach out" to?  Then I realized, my Nineveh doesn't look like what she described.  Mine is different. My "Nineveh" isn't really reaching out to people, but it is doing something that God is telling me to that I'm not really excited about and have been putting off for a while.

The whole reason I'm here is to get a new visa and work on raising more support to go back to England. I was also hoping to get a job to earn a little extra money.  But then, we moved right when I got home, and I was busy for the first few weeks.  Talk about an interruption! Then I wasn't feeling well. Then there were things planned for the next few weekends to prepare for.  Then I found more and more excuses not to contact people. I knew I should get around to working on support, but what's the rush, right? More excuses, and then, oh hey, its November! 

This has shown me that yes, I did have some legitimate reasons to begin with.  Moving is stressful. Not living the house I called "home" anymore is considered a loss, and I needed time to emotionally deal with that before engaging the real world. But now God is showing me my "Nineveh", and calling me to do my part to go back to England. I can't be disobedient anymore.  Even if I finally get a temporary job offer that will bring in some money. Which I did, and had to turn down.  Just because something is good doesn't mean we can use it as an excuse to disobey what God is actually calling us to do.  So my friends, please pray for me! There's a reason why I've been putting this off.  It's hard work. It's uncomfortable. It's impossible for me to do on my own.  But God desires my obedience more than other "good things" that I think I have to offer Him. And I know from experience, He will not leave me hanging!

So, we know what my "Nineveh" is, what's yours?