Saw this and thought worth forwarding, especially for those in the Christian tradition...maybe interesting for others too.

http://www.y2kcentralflorida.com/

Jonah and the Worm and Y2k

January 3, 2000: Ive spent the last three days feeling a little like Jonah must have felt around the time of his encounter with the worm. Do you know that story?

In case you don't, we'll do a little backtracking. Lets start with Jonah chapter 1. The only part of Jonahs history most Christians know is his three-day stay in the belly of a whale. You remember: God said, "Jonah, go preach to those evil people in Nineveh." And Jonah promptly remembered that he had promised himself a cruise in the other direction.

Now God doesnt take well to insubordination, so He whipped up a storm to disturb Jonahs boat-trip, and to make a long story short, Jonah ended up being swallowed by a great fish, and spent the next three days and nights among gastric juices and stinking innards. Is it any wonder he changed his mind about that missionary journey to Nineveh?

Lets skim past the end of chapter 2  I prefer to avoid slimy things, and Im sure Jonah was a MOST SLIMY thing when he landed on the beach. Chapter 3 sees him headed in the right direction. But while Jonahs covering those last few miles to Nineveh, lets talk about those Ninevites.

Jonahs reluctance to spend time in their fair city was very likely because of their well-earned reputation for unspeakable acts of torture against non-Ninevites. History tells us they took pleasure in coming up with ingenious ways to prolong suffering during the execution of their enemies. Nahum (a few pages later in your Bible) tells us that Nineveh was also guilty of evil plots against God, exploitation of the helpless, cruelty, idolatry, prostitution, and witchcraft. Jonah may well have believed that Nineveh was worth writing off  "OK, God, nuke em!"

But God said preach, so Jonah preached. "Youve got forty days to straighten up, or else!"

And what do you know? They listened! The whole city of Nineveh exchanged their designer wardrobes for sackcloth, and repented of all the evil they had done. So God, in His infinite grace, let Nineveh off the hook.

Now we come to my favorite part of the Book of Jonah: chapter 4  Jonah and the Worm.

But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the Lord, "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."

"Lord, what happened to Y2k?? It made perfect sense to me that you were gonna let society fall flat on its face for a little while. After all, the world has made technology into its god. Thats idolatry, right? And if you look around at all the crime, and the politicians, and the total lack of morality, this "civilized" world is looking a lot like Nineveh of old. So judgment  especially in the form of a computer glitch -- seemed appropriate.

"Also, Lord, I thought I was acting according to Your will when I spent all that time these last several months making reasonable Y2k preparations and urging others to do likewise. I had prayed for Your guidance, and I thought this was what you wanted me to do. What was that  a joke??? Or was I that wrong? If I misunderstood you about Y2k, how can I be sure of the other things I THINK you want me to do?

Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."

"Im so embarrassed I could just die! (Ok, so that's a little extreme.) But how do I face my friends, my family, those people at church? I told them Y2k was going to be serious, at least for a while. I told them to stock up on chunky soups and manual can openers and flashlight batteries, to download those patches for their computers, to check on their neighbors. I encouraged them to have extra Bibles on hand to give to people who might have time for reading while the power was off and the televisions wouldnt work. I even put up a website, Lord! I didn't try to sell anything. I kept it balanced, not going off the deep end like some others did. I listened carefully to the experts. I tried to stick to the facts. And I was SURE that the insight You had given to those of us in the Christian Y2k community was for our protection  and for Your glory.

Now I just feel humiliated  like Ive been wasting my time! And You let me!"

But the Lord replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"

Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and wanted to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give him shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonahs head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live."

But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"

"I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."

But the Lord said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" Jonah 4: 1  11. New International Translation.

So there it is.

Yes, I must sound as silly and petty as Jonah did, complaining about my own hurt pride.

The utilities work, the banks survived without a scratch, and life is back to normal.

I don't regret any of the preparations we made. We have a well-stocked pantry now, just like my grandparents had when I was little. I've gotten to know our neighbors a little better. I certainly appreciate our lights and heat and running water and electric appliances more than I did a year ago. And my priorities have been realigned. There's a lot of good that came out of Y2k!

I even believe that the awareness work we did was part of why this rollover went so successfully

I'm just sorry for those moments on New Year's Eve when I was actually hoping to be vindicated for the hard work by some noticeable Y2k disruptions.

The Book of Jonah ends with verse 11, so we dont know how the prophet Jonah reacted to Gods compassionate explanation. But Im not going to let my private argument with God end here  at least not without a public apology from me!

"Thank you, Lord, for getting us through Y2k without any serious incidents.

"In Nineveh, you worried about those children (120,000 who cant tell their right hand from their left) and the animals.

In todays world, You recognize, as I should have, that for every person who worships their computer, there are many others who dont know a mouse from a gig. And those innocents would have suffered even more than the technologically adept if there had been major infrastructure failures. Therefore, thank You for a repeat performance of that amazing grace You do so well.

"Oh, and thanks for the lesson in humility, too. Im SURE I needed it! Maybe for my next project?

"Your will be done. Amen."

Janis

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This page Last Updated: 01/03/00

-- Walter S (wsvnsk2@juno.com), January 07, 2000

Answers

May we as God's people learn to rejoice when many have been spared from calamity. May we also learn to be adaptable and follow Gods instructions without developing pre-conceived ideas about the mind of God and second guessing His will.

-- Marty (mrobazek@wausau.com), January 07, 2000.

Thanks for your reflection. Similar analogies/thoughts occured to me this week. However, the Y2K side of this equation has little to do with Divine Judgment: its a design flaw in a system we built ourselves .... I'll check my urge to philosphize on just why. Now our Machine is broken. Whether it still coasts down the road for a few weeks or months under its acquired momentum, I say is incidental to the fact: busted. What happens to the infrastructure is .... OUR JUDGMENT on ourselves. Every quarterly report over the last 50 years that sacrificed addressing this problem for the sake of showing greater immediate profits/returns, wiill be stacked in a bonfire under our asses and kindled.

Whether Nature takes vengeance on us, as She did the French just last week, is another matter. And if God sends war, plagues, famines, etc amidst it all ... who would be surprised?

>"<

-- SH (squirrel@huntr.com), January 07, 2000.

Walter,

Amen.

Thanks be to God!

A sinner

-- A sinner (Iam@notworthy.com), January 07, 2000.

Thank-you Walter! God's timing is so much better than ours.

I like that: a sinner-I am not worthy. Was just having those thoughts myself lately.

-- (I Believe (Repent@time is now.com)), January 07, 2000.

I did NOT write this. check the link at top if you wish to see who did, in Florida.

-- Walter Skold (wsvnsk2@juno.com), January 07, 2000.

Thank you Walter for posting this report...I realize you are not the original author, but you have definitely been a "messenger". I kept thinking that, perhaps, Y2K was to be our "modern day Tower of Babel". That God would confuse our language, set us back a few years, and give us a chance to reconsider our priorities and the direction we were going in ... and maybe it was...or maybe now is the time of confusion. God Bless you

-- Eileen (on God) (macenery@gte.net), January 07, 2000.

To A Sinner and the others: The people of Nineveh REPENTED, including the king. They didn't gloat and try to force God to accept their sin. They repented. We are much more like the people of Capernaum than we are the people of Nineveh.

Another thing. Baby Christians sin. Adult Christians do NOT PRACTICE sin. John, son of Zebedee, brother of James - Whom Jesus called "Sons Of Thunder" - says it best: "And you know that He became a man so that He could take away our sins, and that there is no sin in Him - no missing of God's will at any time, in any way; SO, IF WE STAY CLOSE TO HIM, OBEDIANT TO HIM, WE WON'T BE SINNING EITHER." 1John 3:5,6

It really IS time for Christians to grow up, and stop patting themselves on the back for being sinners, because as Jesus says: " Not all who sound religious are really Godly people; they may refer to me as 'Lord' but still won't get to Heaven. For The decisive question is whether they OBEY my Father in Heaven."

-- DB (tomG@h.com), January 07, 2000.