It's a surprising thing, when the service on Sunday seems like it was prepared just for you. You know that feeling? Where it feels like the pastor is talking... directly... to.... YOU.

That's the feeling that I got today. You see, I'm not a humble person. I think about myself first, and everything that I do is centered on myself. But God is actively and agressively against that. He is constantly in the process of directing my attention back to Him.

Lately I have been feeling frustrated at certain parts of life. There's a lot of things that I feel forced to do, and to be honest, I don't want to do them. Basically, its the parts of life where I don't get to be the center of attention. The parts where I have to give of myself, where I have to get off the throne, places and scenarios where I have to be uncomfortable. Blurgh.

Today as I walked into the ECHO room and sat down, I felt a huge burden on my heart: a trial that God has been putting on me for a few weeks now. I didn't want to respond to it. I just wanted to sit and sulk until I got everything my way. Why do I have to go through this?!? Why can't I just ignore God's call here and just do what pleases me?

The worship songs began, and we began singing about the Cross, the redeeming love that God showers on us even though we do not deserve it. I didn't feel like I deserved it. Yet the songs demonstrated truth after truth after truth. Though sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. I was experiencing God's mercy even at that time.

Then Matt got up to deliver the sermon, continuing our series on the minor prophets. Today, the book of Jonah: a man who heard the call of God, yet ran away because he didn't want to do God's will. God pursued Jonah.

Dang it.

But God had mercy on Jonah and also gave him a second chance. God also gave mercy to many others in the book. At the end of the book, we see an example of how Jonah loved his own comfort more than he did the salvation of others. When God asked him "Have you any right to be angry?" He was asking a question that already had an answer. Yet Jonah was so self-absorbed that he gave an answer anyways (the wrong answer). He hated everything that was going on, especially because he wasn't getting things his way. I could completely relate to Jonah. I don't want to do what God is challenging me to do. I would rather just sit in comfort, playing video games, doing my own thing, hanging out with my beautiful fiancee.

Yet, the Lord isn't asking, He's commanding. He didn't suggest to Jonah that it might be a good idea to preach to the corrupt Ninevites, He said "go". So what should my action be in response to the God who commands the seas, and who saved me from the pit??

That's probably another one of those questions that already has an answer.