Like Jonah but unlike Nineveh

I recently reread the story many call “Jonah and the whale” and I could not help but compare Jonah and Nineveh with the Philippines.

- CITO BELTRAN

Filipinos today are much like Jonah when it comes to calling out what's wrong in our society. Jonah chose to skip town rather than do what God called him to do.

To be fair, it is no easy task to walk up to a city and its king and tell them that your sins are so many, they have reached up to heaven and God is about to wipe you all out.

In today’s world, many of us surely see similar sins or errors in judgment being committed by friends and loved ones. But instead of “telling it like itis,” we play nice and choose to be politically correct.

We water down the problem, play along or say nothing at all. Of course we care, we care so much that we don’t want to risk hurting people’s feelings, losing friends or being cancelled.

But in reality, what we do is cancel our belief, love and concern by being silent. Addicts who recover often credit the people who “intervened,” parents or people who kicked them out or forced them to go to rehab.

Regret or “sayang” (what a waste) are words I really dislike, even hate, because it is our lack of love and lack of courage that bite us after someone loses it all or loses their life because we wimped out, just like Jonah.

But God has greater concerns and when you are “it” he will not accept a “No” or let you skip town. What's interesting is that God uses difficult circumstances to make us realize what matters.