♣
Calling is quietly loud
W
hen Jonah boarded the ship, the Word records that he went below deck, laid down and fell into a deep sleep. The sleep
was so intense that he did not hear or feel the violent storm that was evident on the sea. Revisit the movie of Titanic and
you will see that an emergency on the high seas will generate untold decibels of noise, yet Jonah heard none of it and it
took the captain of the ship a trip to the bunkers to wake him up.
Two issues really jump out at this point. One - it is the easiest thing to find what is commonly referred to as your comfort zone and
settle in it with no afterthought. Two - the exit from your comfort zone will never be as easy as the entry. You enter in one piece,
you leave broken.
Zoning off into comfort
A zone is an area with defined boundaries. Boundaries are defined by people who want to keep things to themselves; they are not
defined by the people against whom the things are being kept away. One of the reasons boundaries are important for people is that
it prevents entry of what they do not want and exit of what they hold dear. Comfort zones are therefore defined areas in which
people ‘feel at peace, complete and secure’, even if they are deluding themselves. In such defined areas, ‘nothing’ is scary or
threatening or demanding; nothing tries to stretch them into anything more than they are.
By going below deck, Jonah was not just hiding from God. He was trying to define the zone within which he was going to live his
life. Quietness, no bothering people, no networking, no association, he just wanted to be an island, taking care of himself. He just
wanted to live a life that would impact no one but himself. Many are like that today. We have greatness built within us but we are
not willing to live life in such a way that it impacts others. Our calling thus tends to be muted.
I have