Summary: <br> Someone I love desperately is on the wrong path. I dreamed of her lastnight. I dreamed of hugging her and telling her this whole mess is going to be worked out. It’s been over 3 months since I saw her. 3 months of praying. Praying for that rock bottom.<br> Rock bottom is what we often have to hit before we make a change. I’ve had my share of rock bottoms … you know who is always at that rock bottom? Our loving God. He’s there making our worst low our new firm foundation to rebuild our lives to higher levels than we ever imagined before. We often try to rescue those we love from rock bottom, protect them from the hard hit, but I’ve been praying for it.<br> Scripture is filled with stubborn, rebellious people who made a mess of things and hit rock bottom. Scripture is also filled with God using these same people for great things. That brings me tremendous hope. God can use faulted, imperfect me for something great. He can use my prodigal daughter. He can use you. And don’t miss this … that’s exactly his plan. His plan is to use EVERYTHING in your life, every single thing, for something good.<br> We all know the story of Jonah – swallowed by a whale. Spent 3 days in the stinky, swampy pit of a whale’s stomach. Now why? Why did this happen to Jonah? That’s a question we all like to ask when stinky things happen to us, when we find ourselves in a bad situation. Why God, why?<br> Jonah knew exactly why he was in this position. God had clearly told him to do something, and he didn’t do it. He was disobedient. Jonah chapter 1 in my bible is titled “Jonah Runs From the Lord.” I wonder how many chapters in the story of our lives could be titled something similar? Looking back I see it – there I was, running from the Lord again. Doing my own thing. Not intentionally, but I was just so busy, I didn’t have time to listen to God. God’s way seemed less appealing than mine. And oh there were times I was sure I knew better than God. Do you have a few chapters of running from the Lord in your story?<br> The book of Jonah starts with ‘The Lord said to Jonah “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh.”<br> Get up and go. Sounds familiar. Seems God wants us to get up and go – get out there and do what we can do. But what if we don’t want to?<br> God instructed Jonah to go to Nineveh. Oh but Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh. The people there were mean and nasty. They would hate Jonah and he knew going there would be hard. So what did Jonah do? He avoided hard. He went the exact opposite way. He got on a boat and headed out for Tarsish. But God saw him on that boat, doing the exact opposite of what he was supposed to be doing. We can’t get away from God. He always sees us. He always knows right where we are. And guess what … nothing we do comes as a surprise to God. He knows us inside and out, he knows our rebellious tendencies, our hardheadedness, our fears and insecurities and he sure loves us anyway. He loves us enough to chase after us, even when we’re going in the wrong direction. He loves us enough to never take his eye off us, even while we’re avoiding him.<br> On the boat, a big ol storm comes up and threatens the lives of everyone on the boat. Jonah knew the storm was because of him. Gosh, don’t you hate that – don’t you hate when you know it was your bad choice that negatively affects others? We can’t live with our head stuck in the sand assuming our choices aren’t affecting our families. Hey mama, wake up – your kids see everything you do. They are watching you. You are training them up to do exactly what you are doing. Would you wish your life for your kids? If not, you better make some changes. What you’re doing is affecting everyone in the boat with you.<br> So eventually,
