In reality, nothing brings you closer to the Lord than when you are in the belly of the whale.

Nothing that bring you to the point of obedience, like being in the belly of the whale.

You see, for Jonah, the belly of the whale experience was the ability to just come up for air

every now and again. The belly of the whale is where you feel that you are drowning, that you're

sinking. The belly of the whale, where the temperature is between 104 and 108 degrees, which

is hotter than any hot tub you've ever been into. There in the belly of the whale for Jonah,

where he was smothered with gastric juices. And, well, I guess it's not very good for your skin tone,

but if you're looking for a bleach, it will help you out.

There, in the belly of the whale, your food menu is nothing but sushi and seaweed.

And there, your aerobic exercises, it goes on for 24 hours, and it's underwater most of the time,

and you come up for air every now and then.

Being in the belly of the whale brought Jonah to the Lord to his senses in a hurry. But look, you don't have to be

there to sympathize with Jonah to understand what he was going through. Any of us who have been

through a storm in life and ended up in the belly of our whale, whatever that

may be, any of us who have experienced inexplicable suffering, any of us who have been and

experience the consequences of our own disobedience can relate to Jonah's prayer and indeed

learn from it.

And that is why I really don't want to focus too much time

on what was happening in the belly of the whale or inside the whale.

I want to focus on what was happening inside Jonah.

Because that's really what matters.

That's really what's important.

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