March 5, 2007
By Martha J. Jaynes

 

Jonah got off easy.  Can I just be honest and say I never much liked Jonah?  To me he was a coward and a con man.  He didn’t want to do what God asked.  He wanted a nice cushy job, but God gave him a tough assignment.  And Jonah ran the opposite way.  He was, in my opinion, too religious.  A godly man would have seen the people of Nineveh as the lost sheep they were.  He would have seen them like God sees them.  Yet Jonah was a man full of religion; he saw the people of that town only as unredeemable sinners.  I know how Jonah felt and I know what it took to change him.  I know what it took to change me and it was a lot longer than three days.

 

I’m Jonah?

I have been an Apostolic for more than 30 years now.  What I have realized is, the freshly-saved me had one thing the fully-churched me didn’t: friends who didn’t go to church.  I had lost contact with the people.  I had become a Jonah.  God needed to remind me what it was like to live without Him.  He did that in a unique way.  He gave me a management job in a restaurant, one that wasn’t closed on Sundays. 

 

I know now why God put Jonah in the belly of the whale.  The whale’s belly was dark, stinky, scary, and full of death.  It was much like a life without God.  If Jonah was too full of religion to go to the lost, God would remind him of what it was like to live day after day with no real hope.  Jonah had to taste of wages of sin.  He had to see what life was like for the people he would be preaching to.  And after many years of service to Him, God did the same thing to me.  He gave a reminder of what life is like on the dark side.

 

I spent 10 months as a restaurant manager.  I was unable to attend regular services for much of that time.  I was reminded in a very real way what it is like to live your life without God.  It was a dark and scary place.  The people I met during my time in the restaurant were unique.  They were the kind of people most us wouldn’t be caught dead with.  They are rough, tough, and ornery.  Yet they got that way from dealing with us Sunday after Sunday. 

 

Apostolics are Jonah?

We Apostolics all go to church on Sunday morning and get all “churched” up.  We sing cute little songs, raise our hands, and listen to the preacher tell us we need to go out and win the lost.  We hear sermons about how we have the truth and the rest of those poor saps fall short.  We hear about the power and glory of our God, but somewhere between the church and the restaurant door we lose the vision.

 

We walk into the doors of the restaurant as if we are an entourage of foreign dignitaries.  We demand to sit as a large group, unless we can separate the kids.  We make no eye contact with the server.  Ignore them when they try to pass out drinks and entrées, and leave a meager tip because they really weren’t that good.  If you don’t know it by now, most restaurant people hate Christians with a passion.  And if they don’t act like they hate you, they are probably merely putting up with you in the slim hopes that you will give them a decent tip.

 

During my time as a restaurant manager I told few people I worked with about my beliefs.  I sensed from the moment I walked in the door that I should shut up so I could live out loud.  Because I shut up, I got some really great insight into how they really feel.   People shared with me their hearts and their true feelings.  They did this because I took the time to listen.  I was also one of them.  I worked side by side with them.  I smiled when I didn’t feel like it.  I suffered the sore feet, aching back, and headaches.  I listened to babies cry, the mothers moan, teenagers whine, and fathers yell.  I was a part of a team.  It was us against them.  We had a mission to get them their food before they get to you.  We were good at it.  The people loved us.  We just hated Sundays.

 

Sundays were the crazy days.  Most of the staff was hung over from the night before. They had worked late to get the good tips on Saturday night.  Then there was typically a party at someone’s house, and they all went there to get wasted.  They dragged in on Sunday morning, barely alive and struggling to focus. 

 

The first part of Sunday wasn’t bad.  It was the non-church people.  You could be a little slow because they weren’t in any hurry.  Sunday mornings were for reading the paper, kicking back, and taking it easy.  They might be slightly hung over like the server, so they understood a slow start to Sunday mornings.  They were patient and jovial.  They appreciated what you did for them.  But somewhere around one o’clock, things started to change.

 

Apostolics Are Worse Than Jonah?

Still wore out from the morning rush and too early for the night crew, you got a rush of church people.  Church people were a different story all together.  Big groups, unruly kids, talking loudly, ignoring you, special orders, and bad attitudes.  It made you wonder what in world these people went to church for.  They all seemed to have a bee in their bonnet, and you were nothing more than a servant to them. They didn’t really regard your feelings or how hard you worked.  One mistake and you were through.  Mess up one drink order, one undercooked meal, one salad with the wrong dressing, and it all went South fast.  Smiles turned to frowns, once-kind faces scowled, and nothing you did came out right.  They were upset with you and you knew it. 

 

My servers were in tears more over church people than any other race, creed, office group, motorcycle gang, or group of teenagers.  My staff hated church people.  I found myself hating them along with them.  I hated what they said they stood for and didn’t.  I hated being lumped with them.  I prayed I would find a way to show my staff that being godly was different from being religious.  I prayed they would find the God of heaven, not the god of man.  Like Paul, I had a purpose.

 

Life Before Jonah
You see my life’s verse is this: And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (II Corinthians 5:15).  I live not for myself but for Him.  The mystery of it all is that He chose me--a foolish thing--to confound the wise.  He decided that I was worthy enough to be a part of His kingdom.  He only asked that I live in such a way as to draw others to Him.  To bring Him glory through my words and deeds.  If I have to go through the belly of whale to do that, so be it.  I spent 10 months reminded of what it was BC (before Christ).

 

I had the chance to do what I have always admonished my children to do: live like you do have the truth.  I have always told my kids that Apostolics like to claim we have the truth, but we don’t want that truth to change how we live.  We don’t mind following all the little rules.  But when it comes to our spirits, we fall short.  If we are the people of the “One True Way,” shouldn’t that knowledge require a higher spiritual commitment?  Are we not required to demonstrate the love and peace that supposedly changed us?  And if we do claim a higher level of knowledge, should not our level of love be higher also?

 

Those 10 months changed me in many ways.  I miss the people I worked with horribly.  I see their faces before me constantly.  I pray for them daily.  My earnest desire is to see them come to an understanding of God and His love for them.  If Jonah had caught a vision of what God was all about, he would not have been so ticked off when God showed mercy and not judgment on the people of Nineveh.  He would have rejoiced for those who found a great light.

 

I try to keep in contact with the people I worked with for that short time.  I would like to report that many of them came to an understanding of who God really is.  But the process is slow.  The strongholds of the enemy have to be torn down before the new work can begin.  Unfortunately, they still see each and every week a good reason not to be Apostolic.  They still deal with the masses of us who are rude and inconsiderate.  Perhaps if they saw more of the glory of God and less of the petulant, they would see the value in serving Him.

 

Life After Jonah

I now manage a video store.  I took the job mainly for the fact that I could arrange to have Sundays off.  In His great scheme of things, God has opened the door and I am working with a good friend I made during my time in the restaurant.  I am still looking for the harvest that I know will one day come.  Humbly I continue to strive for a spirit that reflects the One that fills my soul. 

 

Yes, I still think Jonah got off easy.  Maybe he should have had to run a restaurant in downtown Nineveh.  Then he would have seen the people with the disease being treated like untouchables by those who have the cure.  I wouldn’t go to a doctor who hated sick people.  And they won’t come to us until we demonstrate the love that saves, not the love that turns you from an honest sinner to a pious, self-righteous Pentecostal (whoops, I mean Pharisee).

 

Or as Peter wrote, “Be careful how you live among your unbelieving neighbors. Even if  they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will believe and give honor to God when he comes to judge the world” (I Peter 2:12, NIV).

 

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© 2007, Martha J. Jaynes

 

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Martha J. Jaynes is a retail manager in the Kansas City area.  She has left the shelter of “normal” Pentecost to introduce the Good Doctor to a lost and dying world.  A questioner of all that is as it always was, it is her heart’s desire to see the Truth taken out of the church and into the hearts of unbelievers.