Jonah was the prophet who ran away from God. Told to preach against Nineveh, he promptly took ship in another direction. So inglorious and stormy was his retreat that the sailors tossed him overboard to get some peace. It wasn't until he found himself in the belly of the "great fish" that he finally realized he had to obey God.
What do you do if you are a Jonah— if, having prayed, you find God's guidance clear, and all you want to do is run?
Take comfort. You have company. The Bible has plenty of quivering heroes, men and women who met the shock of God's direction with every conceivable reaction other than the simplicity of instant obedience. They laughed, fell flat on their faces, protested, were overcome by a feeling of inadequacy, sat under a juniper tree and asked to die, even set up an experiment with fleece and dew, stalling for time to recover from the shock that God meant them.
