Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: SNOOZE (07/20/17)
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TITLE: Those That Pisseth Against The Wall | Previous Challenge Entry
By Phillip Cimei
07/26/17 -
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On that particular day, he, not exactly a prairie flower, grabbed me by the shoulders with his robust hands and said, “Son, when the Lord speaks, you listen.”
My shoulders flinched back as my voice resonated a tone of disrespect, “But I like it here, and I don’t like those people.” He grimaced. My resistance to his pastoral instruction caught him by surprise.
The call came for me to go. But I was comfortable right here. Why couldn’t God call someone else? My father was a preacher, and now, I was one. A fledgling being pushed out of the nest. A nest in which my father laid every twig according to God’s instructions.
A mainstay to my pastoral practicum, he knew I had God’s calling to preach. Why didn’t I? Isn’t that the way it works? I heard God tell me, so why did I resist?
I didn’t want to be weaned off the milk of my father’s tutelage and bite down on the meat which God had set at my table. I had teetered at the cliff’s edge of insolence, against my father, worse yet, against God.
I didn’t want to preach to, those that pisseth against the wall, as my father, in times past, had referred to those I now must convert. Why couldn’t I just stay here with God’s flock of believers—those that loved the Lord? No! I had to be sent to mongrels. The lowest of the low— heathens that scorned at the name of my Lord. And my father wouldn’t let up.
His facial muscles tightened. His brow lowered under the weight of consternation as he bellowed out, “Hear my son, your father’s instruction…” Proverbs 1:8 NKJV. My head twisted back as I bolted out the door. My heart ached as the last view of my father was tears streaming down his face. And his last words were, of course, a desperate plea from God’s word to abide in Him, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” Psalms 32:8 ESV. That dart would eventually hit dead center in my heart.
I submitted to the call—not at first. It took some prodding from God. Eventually I gave in. I poured out my heart into every sermon. To my amazement, the worst of the worst responded with fervor and excitement. Many pleaded to the Lord for forgiveness, while others stood mesmerized by the Word of the Lord coming out of my mouth. It was a revival of all revivals. So then why am I now curled up, like a baby, cursing God and feeling sorry for myself?
I rested a little, though still agitated that God would allow those dogs of humankind to have a chance at what I had— they didn’t deserve it. I awoke to the beating sun. I lay here wanting to die. But that wasn’t good enough for God.
I mean, being thrown overboard, swallowed by some huge, stinky fish, and then being belched out like a watermelon seed wasn’t bad enough. Now, He takes away the only shade I have. Not only that, I have to listen to his chastisement, “And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty-thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock” Jonah 4:11NKJV.
Okay, I get it. God loves all of his creation. And He had told His prophets that One-day He would send another prophet. One that would open a different door to His amazing grace. I wonder if that prophet’s ministry will be as difficult as mine?
I’m sure He won’t have to endure the stench—in the belly of a fish—for three days and three nights. Or have to preach to those that pisseth against the wall. He will probably have it easy, and be treated like a king with a bright shiny crown. I bet God wouldn’t forsake Him, or make Him sweat. He will probably end up sitting at some great feast at the right hand of someone important.
Added comment: Pardon the seemingly crude and vulgar language. That expression, Pisseth against the wall appears six times in the King James version (Old Testament). The Hebrew people took it as degenerate sinners, specifically males, mongrels as low as dogs who urinate on anything.
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Thanks so much for being brave and bold enough to give us a new perspective on Jonah's story and his possible motivation for resisting the call to Nineveh. I love the reference he made to God not being forced to endure a similar 3-day "imprisonment"; a very apt and interesting lesson.
Well done!