About my skimboard...

Great story of Jonah and the whale...
God is one who's like no other. God is not One who is worried about what people think.He doesn't let His people's worries, fears, strengths control His actions. He's God. He knows all and He is good.
God is also one who uses the weirdest things imaginable to carry out His plan. A whale. As He's created everything, He's used ONE to swallow an unfaithful, doubtful man who was called to do some crazy things for God. Jonah. From our shaded perspective, we would think he had every right to be freaked out & escape this one dreadful place. God's going to turn this most evil place in the entire country into a place of goodness? Apparently, God wasn't big enough to do that, so Jonah ran away. Sound familiar to our lives? He decided to take a boat. The sea was outraged. The men he was with, casted lots, found out it was because of Jonah & he was tossed. The rage of the sea died instantly & it was bluntly calm. The mouth of the whale came up around Jonah & he was in the whale for 3 days. An unknown place. It's dark. It probably smells. Many of us get swallowed into a place like this.

Only thing we can do is search God's face beg for help.

Prayer of Jonah.
"In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me.
From the depths of the grave I called for help,

and you listened to my cry.

You hurled me into the deep,

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 brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God.

"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

forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

But I, with a song of thanksgiving,

will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.

Salvation comes from the LORD."

Lord had the whale spit Jonah out onto land. Message came to Jonah the 2nd time: Go to Ninevah and give my message. He did. Lives were changed. Seemingly unthinkable, unconquerable, impossible tasks are crumbs beneath God's feet. Then, they're made possible. God says "Walk in my ways", put your footsteps in His and trust. Take comfort in His knowing. God is good.