11 Quick Lessons from Jonah 1-3

Last week I read Jonah.  I love that book!  But it had been a long time since I actually read it (unless you count looking at the pictures in Knox's picture Bible). :)

I was really challenged as I read through it this time, so I thought I'd share some of what I learned.

Today I'm sharing the notes I scribbled in my Bible margin from chapters 1-3.  There are millions of things we could get from these verses, but I'm focusing on what happens when we run from God's presence. 

In my next post I'll tell you about the huge question I encountered in Chapter 4 and the (shocking!) answer Josh helped me discover!

Jonah 1-3

Am I running from God's presence?

1.) Jonah was running not just from Nineveh, where God had asked him to go. He was fleeing from God's presence.  Sometimes the "best" of us turn our backs and run from God.   

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me."  But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish [which was in the opposite direction from Ninevah]  from the presence of the Lord. (1:1-3a)

2.) God notices and mourns when we turn away from His presence.  He will do whatever it takes to get our attention back. Sometimes He sends a big storm into our lives.

But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. (1:4)

3.) When we run from God, we become apathetic.  Tired.  We don't care any more.  We try to hide.

But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. (1:5)

 4.) But we can't hide from God.  I can just imagine what was running through Jonah's mind as the sailors began to cast lots: "Surely they won't find out this is all because of me.  Surely this casting lots thing won't actually work." But God allowed it to.  And all fingers pointed to Jonah.

And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. (1:7)

5.) God can use our hugest failures to show others His strength and power. 

So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased its raging.  Then the men feared God exceedingly and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. (1:16)

6.) We never surprise God.  He is already ready and waiting - with grace! - for the worst we can throw at Him.  And His grace sometimes comes in...unlikely...forms.  Sometimes we don't recognize that the big fish that just ate us is a gift of grace and deliverance.

Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. (1:17)

7.)  Eventually, when God finally gets our attention again...we reach out to Him.  We respond once again with an expression of faith.  We turn back toward His presence.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish's belly...Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple. (2:1,4)

8.) God sees our change of heart.  He hears our prayer and He rescues us!

So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (2:10)

9.) God gives us a second chance!!!

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you." (3:1)

10.) We end up exactly where God wants us to be.  Why do we sometimes choose to take the hard way?

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh... (3:2)

11.) God wants to use us...imperfect, hard-headed us...in big ways, for His glory!

So the people of Nineveh believed God...! (3:5)

Here it is!

It's the moment you all (or at least maybe Knox's grandparents) have been waiting for!

We finally caught him rolling over...on camera!  Enjoy the show. :)

Carmelitas

I'm afraid I've started to mislead you into thinking that this blog is all about exercising and health food. I have to set the record straight with this recipe. If you have ever visited us, you have probably already tasted these bar cookies. They are our all-time favorites and always a sure crowd pleaser. This is a recipe you will definitely want to try.

This afternoon we had some very good friends over for some Taboo! (the game) and football, so I had a good excuse to make them. It was my sugar indulgence of the week and it was worth it!

Carmelitas
(adapted from Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off cookbook)

CRUST
2 cups flour
2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups butter, softened

FILLING
1 (12.5 oz. jar) caramel ice cream topping (or 1 can dulce de leche*)
3 Tbl. flour
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350. Grease 13x9 inch pan. In large bowl, blend all crust ingredients at low speed (or with your fingers) until crumbly. Press half of the mixture (about 3 cups) in bottom of greased pan. Reserve remaining crumb mixture for topping. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in small bowl, combine caramel sauce and 3 Tbl. flour (if you are using dulce de leche you do not need to mix in the additional flour). Remove partially baked crust from oven; drizzle evenly with caramel. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and nuts. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture over all.

Bake at 350 for an additional 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

*The caramel sauce is delicious too but I usually prefer the creamy taste of the dulce de leche. Just note that it's just a little more work to spread the dulce de leche over the crust. Use a butter knife and a very light touch to spread.

Happy Saturday!

Va-cay!

123Tiffin stood us up again.

Even though Josh talked to them and they assured us they were on their way. Boo! This goes down on the charts as one slick deal that didn't turn out to be so slick. All I can say is, it's a good thing I made those muffins yesterday! (Although I forgot how much food our awesome community group hosts feed us at our Bible studies...we really don't need any dinner on Thursdays!!)

123Tiffin was a bust, but Josh has really found some amazing bargains on slickdeals.net. At first I was skeptical about slick deals and teased him a lot about his obsession.

I mean, he even has a t-shirt.


But I don't tease him any more. He's found us some really fun things we would otherwise never be able to afford as seminary students.

The best of which we cashed in on last night! We booked flights for both of us...and 7 nights at The Westin San Diego...for $20!

Yep, twenty bucks. We're going during Josh's spring break in March. We did have to sign up for a couple of new credit cards last year to get the credits. But hey, whatever it takes.

We haven't been on a real vacation (besides visiting our families and a couple of weekend excursions in Texas) since we went to Phuket, Thailand for a getaway when we were living in China. That was awesome.







Unfortunately in San Diego I don't think we'll find street vendors selling chocolate banana Roti and beach stands making fresh coconut smoothies. But hopefully there won't be as many weird Europeans in Speedos, either. :)

Those of you who have been to San Diego...any recommendations?

The Healthy Muffins that are Really (no, really!) Good

Who says that just because you give up sugar for a while you have to give up baking? I made these muffins today for two reasons. #1, I thought Josh and I needed a fun afternoon snack; and #2, as Plan B for dinner tonight.

Plan A is "123Tiffin."

What is 123Tiffin, you ask?

I am not really sure. All I know is that last week one day I got a text message from Josh saying, "Do you want Indian Food tonight? It's a slick deal." And I texted back, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" because I love it when Josh finds fun slick deals, I love Indian food and I love it when I don't have to cook dinner. (A "slick deal" is any deal Josh finds on his favorite website, www.slickdeals.com, which I will doubtless blog more about in the future.)

So anyway we waited for two hours that night for 123Tiffin to deliver our $5 meal for two and it never showed up. We had to go to Jersey Mike's and get subs instead. Tonight 123Tiffin is supposed to redeem themselves and send us another meal. This time around I'm a little less excited and a lot more skeptical. So I'm prepared. If they don't show...or if the food looks too scary to try...we're having Progresso soup and these muffins for dinner, instead. :)

The muffins are really yummy. The recipe came from my mother-in-law, Marlene, and I think she got it from the Whole Foods website. She baked these for me when Knox was about two weeks old and they've become a family favorite.

They're healthy, too! This isn't one of those tricks where someone tries to convince you that something healthy tastes good when it really doesn't. I wouldn't do that to you. On second thought, maybe I would. But you can trust Mom P!! She never makes anything that isn't 100% delicious. :)

Blueberry Oatmeal Applesauce Muffins

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar*
2 T. canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Preheat oven to 375.

Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray (or line with muffin papers). In a large bowl combine flour, oats, powder, soda, salt and cinnamon. In a medium bowl combine applesauce, buttermilk, sugar, oil and egg. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add applesauce mixture. Stir just until moist. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.

Bake 16-18 minutes.

*Or, if you told the whole world yesterday that you're giving up refined sugar for 60 days, you can use 1/4 cup (or more) honey as I did today and it comes out almost as good. :)




Knox couldn't have a muffin but he did enjoy a little oatmeal & applesauce too:

Sweatin' to the Oldies

INSANITY!

That's my other New Year's Resolution.

Not to go insane, but to complete the Insanity Workout 60-day challenge!

Knox is five months old and I have 12 lbs to lose to get to my pre-baby (and pre-Christmas cookie) weight. The baby belly was cute when I was 5 months pregnant but not so much at 5 months post pregnant.

The New Year has rolled around so it's probably time to get serious about this.

I actually like exercising. My regular routine is to jog three times a week and do Tae Bo two times a week. But that's been my routine since...let's see...college. Not that I have a tendency to get stuck in ruts or anything!

But I figured I needed to change things up to knock off these pounds. We'll see if Insanity can do it! I'll let you know how it goes. :)

I'm on Week #2 and it is HARD. Yes. These videos are by far the hardest workouts I've ever done. Let's just say I usually go through an entire 32 oz. Nalgene bottle of water by the end of the warm-up and stretch! And the workouts get harder after the first month. I don't even want to think about that right now.

I can't cut back too much on calories since I'm nursing, but I AM going to try to avoid as much refined sugar as possible during these 60 days. That's the plan. No refined sugar except 1 (2 at tops) sugary treat per week. As you all know, this will probably prove to be a much bigger challenge for me than completing those crazy workouts! :)

But that pan of Ghiradelli double chocolate brownies that was on my kitchen counter all last weekend? Yeah, I only ate ONE. It was a pretty big one - because if you can only eat one sweet a week you really have to make it count! - but I only had one.

What does Knox think of all this? He's been busy polishing his own workout routine.

He starts the day with a nice stretch:

Warms up with push-ups:




Jumps right into some fat-blasting cardio:




And finishes it up with a circuit of plyometrics!

Just for the record, Vermont maple syrup is not refined sugar.

I resolve...

Thank you so much for all the awesome ideas on things I can do for Josh to help him survive this crazy semester!! I love what you said! Here's what we have so far:

"Keeping the Castle in Order"
(keep the home clean, organized, welcoming)

Make Good Meals

Make or Get Sweet Treats

Initiate Quick, Fun Study Breaks

Have "Face Time"
(one minute to give/receive undivided attention)

Surprises!

Sex
(did I really just write that on my blog?)

Take Walks/Play Frisbee

Give Back Rubs

This should give me lots to work with this semester. And I'm still interested in hearing ideas if anyone has any more!

I did ask Josh, too, what he would say helps him most when he's stressed out. He said, "just knowing that you're okay and happy; and if you're having a tough time, just knowing what's going on inside you."

Swoon. Isn't that a cool answer? But it's not as easy at it sounds because I'm not always as content as I want to be and I'm not always the best at communicating what's happening inside me. That's something I'm always working on. And that is one reason why I need to journal.

...Which brings me to my New Year's Resolutions. What kind of blog would this be if I didn't post my New Year's Resolutions?!

New Year's Resolution #1 is to JOURNAL.

Journaling is (usually) a very important piece of who I am. I picked out my first diary when I was eight years old. It was shiny black with a turquoise, hot pink and purple design on it (my favorite colors in 1988); and its best feature was its teeny tiny lock and key.

So I've been journaling ever since. I have loads of old journals. Seriously. I was looking for one earlier today and since most of them are in a huge Rubbermaid bin in the back of our closet I started my search there.

Then Josh said, "Aren't there some under the bed?" And I said, "Yes." Then he said, "Aren't there some under the dresser?" And I said, "Um, yes." Clearly our apartment is being overtaken by old journals. It's not very convenient, really, to be a journaler when you move as much as we do. Journals weigh a lot. I've tried journaling on the computer to save space but it just isn't the same.

Something happened to me last year, though.

I fell off the journaling bandwagon.

I'm not completely sure why. I think it was partly because there was a baby on the way and I was just excited and distracted and busy. Oh, and tired. And partly because I never even bothered to get a real journal, I just pulled one of Josh's extra school notebooks off the shelf...Exhibit A:



As you can see I doodled a (very lovely) tree on it one day, but it's still a boring old spiral notebook, and wasn't ever as inviting as a pretty journal. (Our pastor, Neil Tomba, said last week that "Real men don't journal; they have notebooks." Having a notebook didn't work for this girl)

I discovered last year that I'm not the same person when I don't journal.

It's harder for me to connect with God.

It's harder for me to sort out my feelings.

It's harder for me to stay focused on what is important in life.

It's harder for me to dream and make goals.

So 2011 is the Year of the Return of the Journal.

Here she is:



Still not the prettiest one I've ever had but it was on sale for $2.99 at Target!

Let the New Year, and the journaling, begin!

Oh, and I'll tell you about my other exciting New Year's Resolution tomorrow! :)


By the way, a bunch of red squiggly lines are telling me that "journaler" isn't a real word but I'm going to use it anyway. :)