Jonah and Me

In my post last week, “And Can You Do That?” I shared some thoughts about my recent experience of visiting my family and my hometown. In my talk this past Sunday, “Don’t Be A Jonah,” I shared some thoughts about my personal interpretation of the story of Jonah and the whale from the Hebrew Scripture through maieutic and metaphysical lenses. Metaphysical and maieutic Bible interpretation captured and have kept my interest since first being introduced to them in the beginning of my Unity studies.

In case you are unfamiliar with word ‘maieutic’ as I was, it is a method of inquiry used by Socrates to draw from the individual a personal relationship with the story. I appreciate that using the maieutic method of Bible interpretation allows each person to relate to the story through his or her experience to discern a personal meaning. Using this method, the meaning derived from a single story can change depending on the current life experience of the one interpreting it.

I share this because I am aware that my personal interpretation of the Jonah story is related to where I am right now in my life and how it relates to my relationship with my family.

Many of you know that I will be taking a six-week sabbatical beginning August 16. Earlier this year, as I contemplated what to do and where to go during my sabbatical, I felt my spirit and Spirit drawing me to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia. Even though I grew up in Georgia, I never spent any time in that part of the state.   

In my mind, I questioned why. Why would I want to go to Georgia of all places? It will be hot and muggy in August and probably in September, as well. Why would I want to subject myself to the mosquitos and all the other various and sundry insects around there? Why not find a higher elevation where it’s cooler and with fewer bugs?

As I sat with the idea longer, I saw the image of a map of family members who live within an easy driving radius of the area. I heard my spirit and Spirit telling me that I could take day or overnight trips to reconnect with my family. Again, I questioned why. Why would I want to spend time with the family I have successfully escaped from and pretty much avoided for the past 35 years or more?

“No,” I said to Spirit, “I think I’ll go to the mountains of Montana or Idaho instead.”

I was Jonah, hearing the call of the inner Spirit to go, and I was, in my mind, refusing to listen.

I searched online for places to go in my preferred locations. Wouldn’t you know it, I found nothing affordable. So, I searched the North Georgia area and found a lovely cabin in the woods surrounded by 30 acres with a pond and a mountain view. You guessed it, it was the most affordable and most attractive place I found.

Still, I questioned Spirit. Why there? While I did not get a definitive answer, my feeling sense was that it was about some healing work that I need to do around my family. Nothing specific, just a sense of some pain, hurt, loss that I needed to address and heal for myself and for them.

Likewise, Jonah was called to Nineveh to help with healing, not only for the people there, but for himself as well. He resisted going. He tried to go someone else only to be redirected.

Fortunately, I did not have to weather a storm or be swallowed by a whale to answer the call. I followed the guidance and booked the place in North Georgia. However, realize that the storm may come, and I may need to live in the belly of the fish for the healing to happen.

My recent trip to Georgia revealed to me some of the pain, regret, guilt and shame I have been running from for most of my life. I know that for me to embrace my wholeness, I need to come face-to-face with the things and people from which I have tried to escape and to integrate aspects of myself and my family of origin that I have so desperately wanted to dissociated from.

I still have some trepidation about going on this trip. I do not know what is in store for me or what I will be called to face, but I trust that I am being guided to greater wholeness and to reclaim parts of myself that I thought I had lost.

I choose to embrace the story of Jonah as my own and allow it to remind me of some important life lessons.

• Spirit lives within us, each of us, and within all creation.
• Our healing impacts the whole of creation, not just ourselves.
• All of creation supports our healing.
• Spirit is constantly and consistently seeking its fullest expression through each of us.
• Spirit is always guiding us to our highest and best unfolding.
• Our first duty is to listen in the silence of our hearts to the still, small voice of Spirit.
• Our next duty is to follow our hearts, not our heads.
• Our rational minds will try to steer us away from following our hearts.
• Spirit is transrational.
• Spirit does not call the prepared, Spirit prepares the called.
• We have what we need when we need it as we stay open and receptive
  to Spirit’s leading.
• We must allow ourselves to abide in the consciousness of possibility and potential (the belly of the fish) for as long and as often as needed.
• We must surrender to Spirit and allow Spirit to work through us to affect the healing that is needed for ourselves, for others, and for the world.
• Each of us is the beloved, worthy of reclaiming our wholeness and
  living empowered lives.

I am choosing to follow Spirit’s guidance, take it one day (or one minute) at a time, stay open to what is moving in me and in others, and invite and welcome whatever comes, knowing that it is all in Divine Order. I also choose to hold the knowing that growth does not have to be painful: Growth can also come through joy.

I encourage you to explore this story and others that speak to you. They may not be factual, but they are truthful. When we choose to see ourselves in the story, they can reveal deeper truths about ourselves and provide guidance for our journey.