$21.63 per Month

T

hird grade was a very big year for me.  This was the year I graduated from simple addition and subtraction to learning my multiplication and division tables.  It was also the year I pestered my dad for a motorbike. 

My best friend and next-door-neighbor, David, received a mini-bike from his dad.  It was great and David let us take turns riding it.  A small outdoors shop had opened just up the street from our home.  Saturday mornings found me in the shop looking over the collection of motorbikes for sale.  These bikes differed from David’s in that they had a three-speed transmission instead of one forward gear.  They were a bit more involved, faster, and I wanted one.

My dad was adamantly opposed to this idea.  However, he was fighting a losing battle.  My mom, and my grandparents were pulling for me and against him.  He held off as long as he could but finally buckled under the pressure. 

He agreed to let me have the bike on the condition I paid for it.  I heartily accepted, agreeing to mow grass in the summer and do odd jobs to earn the money to make the payments.  Dad borrowed the money from the bank and had the loan made out to me.  The payments were $21.63 per month for twenty-four months.  I thought it would be a cinch.  I’d mow a few yards, take out the trash on a regular basis, and do odd jobs around the house.  No problem, I thought, but I didn’t count on a dry spell.

That summer, it didn't rain like I had planned!  I remember asking my grandfather if I could mow the grass.  He just looked at me.  The grass was brown from lack of water and mowing it would have killed it completely.  He told me that I couldn't mow because there hadn't been enough rain.  I simply remarked, “That’s the problem.  It won’t rain, the grass won’t grow, but my payments just keep going on and on!”

This is comical now, but it wasn't funny then!  The lesson I was learning was one of responsibility and keeping a promise I had made to the bank.  No matter what the conditions outside, the promise I had made, the terms to which I had agreed, meant that the money for that bike had to be paid back to the bank, no excuses made or accepted!

Jonah also learned this lesson and he learned it the hard way.  When God asked him to go to Nineveh, Jonah fled in the opposite direction.  He tried his best to avoid God’s call, to run away from him, only to discover it was impossible.  From inside the belly of a great fish, Jonah cried out to the Lord to save him.  Earlier he had made the claim that he worshiped the Lord, the God of Heaven but his actions did not match his words.

From inside the fish, Jonah realized his mistake.  He came to understand that worshiping God meant obeying him and fulfilling his commands.  His words, recorded in Jonah 2:9, demonstrate this understanding, “But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good”. Jonah had to keep his promise and fulfill his vow to God.

H

ow much like Jonah we are.  We find it so easy to say we worship and honor God but our actions don’t quite fit our words.  Saying we worship and serve God means we have vowed to do His will.  We have promised to give up our wishes and our desires in order to serve Him.  The road is not always easy and it isn’t always what we expected but it is what we promised to do.  No matter the conditions, God expects us to keep our promise.  No excuses made and none accepted!