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 from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. – Jonah 1:1-3 NKJV. 

So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. – Jonah 1:15-17 NKJV. 

Jessie Kingsinger’s mother called police for help in Florida to obtain a psychiatric evaluation for her son. Her son, Jessie, is 21-years-old and he attempted to flee from the police officers who arrived to help. In his attempt to get away from officers he jumped into a nearby lake, but officers did find him soon afterwards. Sadly, an alligator had bitten off three-quarters of Jessie’s left arm by the time he was found. A spokesperson for the Police Department said about the injury: “We expect it had just happened, seconds before he crawled out, otherwise he would have bled out.” Jessie as you would expect, has been hospitalized for the injury to his arm, and for the psychiatric issue.  (Yahoo News 05.12.16; The Ledger 05.12.16) 

Have you ever tried to run away from something unpleasant? I have. It is human nature to want to avoid unpleasant things. I once wrecked my car when I was a teenager by trying to jump over a ditch four or five feet wide. The car did make it over the ditch, but it slammed the fan through the radiator, and warped the frame. Now this was an obvious complete failure of judgment and responsibility on my part to do such a crazy thing. How would I explain it to my parents? My first response was that I had a friend, who had a friend whose Dad had a body shop, and I would have him repair the car before my parents found out. I went so far as to have my friend’s friend to drive a wrecker out to the scene, before I came to my senses, and decided to take my medicine. 

“Take your medicine” is an old phrase that was often used when I was growing up. UsingEnglish dot com defines “take your medicine” as: “If you take your medicine, you accept the consequences of something you have done wrong.” I stumbled onto song lyrics by a group I never heard of (Cloud Cult) titled “Take Your Medicine” with these words: “You can take it in stride, or you can take it right between the eyes. Suck up, suck up and take your medicine.” That night I had my friend drive me home to face my parents to take my medicine. Probably the worst part of that was the disappointment I knew my parents had about what I had done. My Dad let my wrecked car sit out in the yard for a couple of weeks, and then he took it to a body shop and had it repaired. 

You know it is hard to “take your medicine” but there is something freeing about doing so. Confession is good for the soul; it is like having a heavy weight lifted off of you. That’s what King David found out after he was confronted with his sins by Nathan the prophet. David cries out, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation (Psalm 51:12).” You can run and run from God like Jonah, but you will never escape. 1 John 1:9 says to do what? “Confess!” “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When you have messed up, when you have failed, when you have sinned horribly – Confess! Don’t try to run, don’t try to hide, it will never work! Confess! Then your God, can begin the healing that will restore the joy of your salvation.