A week after going to the lake I am still suffering the effects of too much sun! I was sitting in the shade, driving a pontoon boat most of the day. I wore a wide brim camouflage hat just in case I needed to step out from under the canvas. It seems the biggest mistake I made was not wearing a shirt!

Still, I felt pretty confident that I was safe or at least mostly protected from the ultra violet rays. Wrong. I had forgotten that sun rays can bounce off the water at an angle and still cause burns.

And the fact that my hat was camo did not even begin to hide me from the rays. I will save you the scorching details, but let’s just say I don’t plan to make that mistake again!

I figured as much pain as I went through in the days following my sunburn episode, there must be a spiritual lesson that could be derived from this. After all, I’ve preached over and over that good things can always come out of bad things. And somehow, joy can be experienced and God can be praised even in the midst of getting burned by life’s trials. Speaking of sunburns — Jonah had to learn a lesson the hard way because of his stubbornness to submit to the will of God. Actually, several lessons. You would have thought being swallowed by a giant fish would have convinced him to see things God’s way.

Jonah did obey God, at least to a point. He preached in Nineveh to the evil people he felt didn’t deserve to be saved. As a result, the Ninevites changed their ways! Lesson one: Be a willing vessel.

Even though the Ninevites repented, Jonah was still angry with God for showing compassion to people with such an evil history. So he sat down under a shelter outside the city to see what God would do to Nineveh. But evidently the shelter was not sun ray proof. So God provided a vine to quickly grow over the shelter.

This eased Jonah’s discomfort from the sun. But the next day God sent a worm to destroy the vine. This concerned Jonah greatly as he almost passed out from heat blazing down on his head!

So God told Jonah that he had no right to be concerned about a vine that he did not create, while ironically hoping God would not be concerned about the well-being of the Ninevites. Lesson two: Be compassionate. God wants us all to spend more time showing concern in the form of Christ’s love to others in preparation for his return, and less time storing up treasures on earth that will eventually burn. Have a great week!

Reach Barrett Vanlandingham at the Fort Gibson Church of Christ at (918) 478-2222 or barrett@ftgcc.org.

Reach Barrett Vanlandingham at the Fort Gibson Church of Christ at (918) 478-2222 or barrett@ftgcc.org.