Thoughts from Inside the Whale: Why the Book of Jonah isn't about Jonah or a Whale

What happens when you hear a story you've heard your whole life and realize it's not about who you thought, but it actually answers the biggest question you've ever asked, "Why?"

At first glance, we think we know everything necessary to know about Jonah, don't we? We've heard the story over and over since we were three years old. What could have possibly changed? We did- that'swhat! We changed and we grew through our experiences- some good, some horrible. Yet our false assumption that Jonah is just a story about obedience has made many of us think we already know what this book of the Bible contains, so we skip over it and undervalue it. Having just gone through seven of the hardest years of my life, I who "knew everything I needed to about Jonah" discovered that the Jonah I knew and learned from was far from the Jonah I needed to know. What I had learned didn't even scratch the surface of what I needed to learn from this book. The answers to the why in life are right there in the four little chapters of Jonah. There is nothing little about how big of an impact these revelations can have in your life, especially when you are in the hardest times of all.