I don’t know about you but every time I read the story of Jonah in the Bible, I am amazed. It’s not so much that part where the giant fish swallows Jonah to preserve his life. . . And I apologize, if you’re totally lost right now. Go and read the book of Jonah before you continue reading this devotion. It’s only four chapters long. It really won’t take you long. Ok, now. . . what amazes me about that story is that God spared the entire city of Nineveh. This was the seat of power for the Assyrian kingdom. It was also the seat of wickedness and witchcraft and all sorts of godlessness.  

The LORD sent Jonah to the city of Nineveh to call them to repentance. God wanted to teach Jonah a lesson about his mercy and grace. And Jonah was actually upset about this—that God would spare the Assyrians. Not only were they godless and wicked, but they were mortal enemies of the people of Israel! The amazing part about this story is that the people listened to Jonah’s call to repentance. God listened to their genuine repentance, and he spared the people.  

The city of Nineveh was eventually destroyed by the Babylonians 150 years later. The region changed political hands over the years but about 500 years later St. Thomas, one of Jesus’ own apostles, traveled to Nineveh and proclaimed the message of God’s grace. That seed of the gospel was planted and remained there for about 2,000 years. Because of your military service and deployments some of you have been there—the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, on the eastern bank of the Tigris River.  

Christianity has been there up until about 2014 when ISIS came in and either drove all the Christians away or slaughtered them. Some reports say that less than 70 Christian families reside in Mosul. Maybe it’s time to go back? That would be a little bit tricky wouldn’t it, to send a pastor as a missionary to Iraq? It wouldn’t be safe. What about you? Would you go?  

The amazing thing about this story of Jonah is that God still works this way. He sends people with his radical grace and mercy to others who clearly don’t deserve it. They listen and they believe and God saves them from themselves and from destruction, from death and hell and all of it, and he gathers them into his house—people from all over the world with different skin colors and languages and cultures. Amazing!  

What’s amazing about this story is that it involves you! You are one of those to whom God sent someone to pour water on your head. In your baptism he gathered you into his home. You are one to whom God sent someone to speak his words: “You are forgiven in Christ.” He caused his Word to be planted in your heart, and he caused faith to grow in your heart to trust that Word so that you know—as unworthy as you and I are, and we know that we are unworthy because of the things that we have done and the things that we have left undone—we know the amazing impossible thing is that God causes us to believe and to trust that this is for us.   

The apostle Paul put it this way: “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy” (Romans 9:16). The Father is generous with his grace and mercy. He told Jonah, “Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (Jonah 4:11). The amazing thing about this story is that God is concerned about our cities, too. 

I don’t need to go over to Iraq. There are Iraqis living right here in San Diego. You should meet my neighbors who live in my little part of San Diego. All the different nationalities and cultures they represent; it’s incredible. I’m sure the same is true for you and the important city where God has placed you. What’s incredible is that he calls you and me to be dispensers of this same amazing grace.  

It’s at this time of year where we hear that word “remember” or the words “don’t forget,” and they immediately tie our minds and hearts to the awful events that happened 25 years ago. Those of us who are old enough remember exactly where we were and what we were doing and how we reacted when we first heard the awful news.  

There’s some of you who were (and still are) on active duty and cannot forget where you were or what you were doing because you knew what this meant for you in your vocation as a war fighter. Some of you were in high school, and you will not forget because those events moved something in you to join the fight and defend our nation so that something like this would never happen again. For some of you who went over there, you wish you could forget some of the things that happened over there.   

There is a lot wrapped up in that word “remember.” Why would I want to remember? Part of us doesn’t want to remember because of how awful it was. We don’t want to remember because of people we lost to the war, people whose minds and bodies have been lost because of the war. And then we get to the deeper spiritual question, “God, do you remember where you were? What were you doing on that day?” And those who suffer may ask, “Lord, do you remember me in my grief and sorrow?”   

What are we to do when remembering is difficult on the heart and soul? The only thing that we can do is to remember who our God is, who never forgets and always remembers – ah, with one exception. “I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12). The most important thing God forgets is your sin, for he has hidden it in his Son’s death on the cross.   

When God looks back at the cross, he remembers. God remembers the pain and trauma and grief and death for God suffered it all for you and me to redeem us from it. God remembers why it was necessary for him to suffer. For God remembers the garden where we brought destruction and trauma and war and death—all the consequences of sin—into the world. God remembers he made a promise right there in the garden and kept that promise by going to the cross and grave for the world. God remembers what happened three days later, because it was on that day he guaranteed, “I redeem all things. I make all things right. I remember that I came to save you.”        

Since our God is a God who does not forget, let us hold him to those things he remembers.  

“Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath” (Job 7:7).

“Remember, LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old” (Psalm 25:6).

“Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope” (Psalm 119:49).

God remembers you. He remembers when he put his name on you, on your baptism day, when he claimed you as his own child, and tied you so intimately to his Son’s death and resurrection. He doesn’t forget you. He will not forget the awful things that have happened to you, your friends, your family, our country, because you are his.   

He will remember to be your strength when you are weak, to be your peace when there is chaos, to be your joy when there is sadness, to be your life in death.  

So do not forget 9/11. But do not forget your God. Remember him. Remember his promises. Because he doesn’t forget them. And he doesn’t forget about you.  

“The one thing you do not want to do as the captain of a Navy ship is to run into another ship.” This struck me as I sat in the captain’s chair and listened to the docent on the USS Midway museum here in San Diego. That one mistake will cost you command of that ship. Somone else will take your place. It will make national headlines. In that moment, what words would you need to hear?  

King David was commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the nation of Israel. He did the one thing a leader should not do. He had an affair with a married man’s wife. He impregnated her. Then he added to the crime. He murdered her husband through a strategic placement in combat operations to cover it up.   

And it eventually made national headlines. But before it did, a trusted friend to the king lovingly, but firmly, pointed out his guilt. Ultimately David’s sin was against his God. David believed the lie that his desires were of greater importance than God’s will for him to practice self-control and be above reproach. His friend wanted David to know this, that he had sinned against God and that David deserved to die. In that moment, what words would David need to hear?  

David wrote about his emotional and spiritual rollercoaster ride in Psalm 32. He described how troubled he was by what he had done. It affected him physically and mentally. It grieved his soul. Then he wrote, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD” (Psalm 32:5). And what was the LORD’s response? “And you forgave the guilt of my sin.” David knew this through the words of his trusted friend Nathan. The most powerful words a friend could say.  

My friends, I know that you have good Christian friends who have made mistakes, some big and some small—at least in the eyes of the world. Have you called them to repent? I would encourage you to do so, because this is what Jesus would have us do. Out of love for their soul, give them that safe, confidential place to confess their sin to you. So that you, with a smile on your face, might say to them the most powerful words you can say to anyone, “My friend, your sin is forgiven. For Jesus has become your guilt. And you have become his righteousness. You will not die but live.”  

And then together recite the words of King David, “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against him” (Psalm 32:1).

They’ve cut off all your hair and the only personal possessions you have are your Bible and a notebook? Embrace the suck. Deployment has been extended again? Embrace the suck. PCS orders have been delayed? Embrace the suck. Oh, our household goods won’t arrive on time and when they do some of them will be broken? Embrace the suck.  

Whether you are new to the military community or you’re counting down the days and weeks to retirement, you know that there are circumstances beyond your control, ones that are unique to a life that is scripted by the Department of War. And when an event happens today that is beyond your control you have learned to say, “Embrace the suck,” and to do just that.  

I know that most of the time this is said tongue in cheek, but sometimes that event, those circumstances that are beyond your control, can be miserable, painful, they weigh on your heart and mind and soul. There are different ways you can respond. You can accept it and move on with resiliency. Easier said than done. . . Or. . . you can run away from it, ignore it, as if it didn’t happen, but you’ll eventually have to deal with it. Or. . . you can sit and wallow in your self-pity. Or. . . you can ask Jesus, “What did you do, when you had to embrace the suck?” Because Jesus, too, had to embrace the suck.   

Jesus addresses all of those times in life when we as Christians have to do things we don’t want to do, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).

When Jesus tells you to deny yourself, he means that you learn to say, “Not my will, but yours be done.” God does have your best interests in mind. He promises it, “I will make all things work out for your benefit” (Romans 8:28). And so you have to trust him even when that thing you are going through seems to challenge his word.  

When Jesus tells you to take up your cross and follow me, it means that you must deny your own doubts and fears, and say, “No matter how great my pain, how horrible my suffering, my God remains my God and Savior because he has promised to be my God and Savior. I will embrace his promises even when they seem to contradict his promise of grace and help in every need.”  

Christ doesn’t just tell us to do these things without showing us that he did them for us. Christ embraced the suck, but more than that! He embraced the good and gracious will of his Father, even when it was difficult, even when it meant he suffered, even when it meant he endured the separation of hell and death and grave for us. He grasped the cross for you so that one day, you will set it down and rest forever.  

Who is Jesus? That was the topic of discussion I had with a young US Army Soldier. He had studied the world religions—Islam, Christianity, Hinduism—and concluded that Jesus was a good teacher, a moral example, but not Savior. 

“Who do people say I am?” Jesus asked his disciples. They shared the whisperings they heard as they mingled with the crowds and listened in the marketplaces, “One of the prophets from old, raised from the dead.” This was nothing new. Jesus dealt with false assumptions about his identity since he walked this earth.  

For some, Jesus is a cheerleader who will affirm whatever it is they want to do in life. For others, he is the “giver of bling,” a genie who will grant them whatever their heart desires. For some, he is a teacher, a moral guide to follow and somehow earn their way to heaven. And others will look at the pluralistic religious environment in which they live and determine, “He is one of many ways to heaven.” But if that’s all Jesus is, why follow him at all?  

This is the question you and I and everyone needs to answer, “Who is Jesus?”   

When the disciples answered as they had heard from crowds, he asked them, “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of living God” (Matthew 16:16). How did he come to that conclusion? He listened, he watched, he read the Old Testament promises and compared them with this man before him and concluded—and believed—“This is the Son of God, the Savior for the world, but more importantly, for me.”  

Yes, my friend, Jesus is more than just a good teacher, for his teachings give life, because they are living words, life-giving words. Jesus’ words give rescue from death. He is more than an example, for we could never perfectly follow it. But the life he lived, he lived for us, for you. Who is Jesus? He is the life, the truth, the way, the one upon whom the Church is built. His is the name which saves you. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

When you have those spiritual and religious conversations, please redirect the convo back to the question, “Who is Jesus?” And then listen. Be patient. Seek to understand. And then confess, “Can I share with you what I know to be true about Jesus? He is the eternal Son of God, who lived for me, died for me, and rose from the dead for me, to give me life eternal, and he has for you, too.”