Doing What it Takes to Change is the Hard Part

Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you . . . Jonah 1:12

Whenever I’ve struggled with some self-destructive behavior, I’ve known what I needed to do to change long before I was willing to do it. This is not uncommon for the addict who knows he needs help but remains unwilling to go to meetings, change his life, or enter treatment, because frankly, those things are miserable and hard to do.

The addict will often accept his addiction, feel bad, and then expect that things will change, simply because he’s admitted the problem. I confessed. I’ve asked forgiveness. Now why hasn’t anything changed? Admission and remorse may be necessary and difficult, but they aren’t the hardest part of recovery.

Jonah’s experience in today’s passage illustrates this. Running from God, his ship threatened by a storm, Jonah confessed to the crew that he was the cause of the tempest. If you want to survive the storm, you will have to throw me overboard. Jonah admitted fault, identified the only solution . . . and then stayed on the ship.

Though Jonah knew what must be done, he couldn’t do it himself. The crew didn’t want Jonah’s blood on their hands though, so they tried unsuccessfully to row to shore. Finally, in desperation, they did what needed to be done, throwing Jonah into the sea.

Like Jonah, most of us know what we need to do. We know we need to give up certain relationships, put down the phone, change jobs, go to meetings, go to church, pick up the Bible, get into treatment, help the poor, love our neighbor, and radically change our lives. We refuse to do those things though, because honestly, those things are miserable and hard to do.

Like Jonah, we remain on the ship, in the storm, miserable, with lives in chaos, unwilling to do what it takes to truly change. If we ever want to end the cycle of self-inflicted pain and destruction though, we must figure out how to make ourselves do what it takes to abandon ourselves to follow Christ. He’s provided a way out. Now it’s up to us to take it.