(This was never finished, but I thought it would be worth having available and when I can I'll finish it up)

I found myself reading the book of Jonah the other day.  Its not unusual for something to stand out to me about a book, or a passage, but this one really shook me.

For those unfamiliar with the story of Jonah I'll present a short re-cap.  Essentially, God speaks to his prophet (Jonah) and tells him that he needs to go to this nasty awful city called Nineveh and declare that Yahweh was in charge and would bring calamity on them if they didn't repent.  Jonah HATED Niveveh and the people who lived there.  So instead of following God's directions he ended up on a boat heading the exact opposite direction.  A few days into the voyage a crazy storm ended up hitting the ship and all the sailors got scared.  Jonah ended up telling them he was running away from God and jumped into the ocean where he was eaten by a "Great Fish".  He sat there three days before the fish threw him up right at the doorstep of Nineveh.  So Jonah did what any child would do if his parents asked him to do a task.  He half-asses it.  He runs through the town and in the quietest voice he could (that part may not be true, but its how I imagine it.) proclaimed that Nineveh would be destroyed if they didn't repent.  He then went to the top of a hill to watch the city burn.  When it didn't go up in flames he said this to God,

"O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live"