Fishy Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we continue our theme of the week of looking at what it means to be grateful without diminishing the sorrow and injustice of the world.

Jonah did not like to pray much. He struggled with believing God’s goodness and he resisted the idea that God had a plan for his life. The one great prayer he prayed is recorded as being from inside a fish - a picture of being within a setting of hardship, discomfort, and loneliness. While many of us are full of joy this holiday, many of us are experiencing hardship, discomfort and loneliness (even while sitting at the family dinning table). See if they are ways you can pray this prayer, with it’s attendant gratitude, in the midst of whatever fish you find yourself in today.

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said:

In my distress I called to the Lord,
    and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
    and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the depths,
    into the very heart of the seas,
    and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
    swept over me.
I said, ‘I have been banished
    from your sight;
yet I will look again
    toward your holy temple.’
The engulfing waters threatened me,
    the deep surrounded me;
    seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
    the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God,
    brought my life up from the pit.

When my life was ebbing away,
    I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
    to your holy temple.

Those who cling to worthless idols
    turn away from God’s love for them.
I, with shouts of grateful praise,
    will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
    I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’

• Jonah 2:1-9