by Tasha Calvert I’m a bit of an anomaly in my family. I’m a morning person. In fact, I sometimes miss significant times of late-night fellowship or family shenanigans because I just can’t stay awake. Often the next morning I will string together the clues of what took place the night before as I make […]

My family and I have a group text. Sometimes if one of us gets a little salty, someone will drop a wide-eyed “oh snap!” gif in the thread. I feel like that would be an appropriate response to verse 3. We established yesterday that Jonah “understands the assignment,” but in the very next verse, he blatantly disobeys. In fact, he goes in the opposite direction. Like, he pays money and takes days off from work to rebel against God.

Most of us haven’t boarded a ship for Tarshish to disobey God, but plenty of us have acted in rebellion.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” –Jonah 1:1–2 (ESV)

Okay, right off the bat I have some questions. Don’t you? How did the “word of the Lord” come? Like, was there an airplane with a banner flying across the sky above Jonah’s tent? Did an angel appear to him? Did God speak to him in a dream or impress upon his spirit? I. Need. More. Details.

Sadly, we won’t always be given details. But I’m comforted by a quick visit to the New Testament book of Hebrews. In Hebrews 1:1–2 we read, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (ESV).

You’ve might have said, or heard a friend say, “my heart on this matter is_________”. It doesn’t take a microscopic lens to discern a person’s heart. We shout it from our social media pages and plaster it on t-shirts. What excites us and what concerns us is on full display. It spills out in a million little ways: our speech, our actions, where we spend our time, our money and cast our ballots; who we hang with, and who we don’t; what we are thankful for, and what we don’t appreciate.

Yet contrary to our tendency, Proverbs 4:23 cautions us to “above all else, guard your heart”. That sounds cliché and we love to spill that verse out to sisters who find themselves in relationships that are not to our liking. Yet, this simple verse holds wisdom for us all, especially in an increasingly divisive, charged culture. Our hearts need to be guarded, for sure. But how?

I wish it weren’t so, but if I’m honest, I like to keep up with the latest trends. A few years back it was very trendy to be “brave”. Sara Bareilles crooned about it, Disney released a feature-length film called “Brave” and Christians sang “You Make Me Brave” in church for months. Yet, in talking with other women, rarely do we ever describe ourselves as brave. In fact, often it’s the opposite: we’re scared, anxious, fearful or insecure.

To be certain, there is plenty in this world to scare us—globally and in our own personal journey. And being ‘brave’ may be trendy, but a Biblical call to courage has always been a Christian’s weapon against fear and uncertainty. Sadly, it does not appear to be something we easily or often possess. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be repeated so often.

I’m not fifty years old. It seems important to note because it will only be true for another few months. Still, I’ve had a substantial amount of time on this earth to wrestle through the important questions in life: why am I here, what does it all mean, what is my purpose?