Sublime

Jonah had always been a sickly child; he was spiritually gorgeous and physically a mess. Kind and generous and giving, and sneezing and coughing and diarrheic.

emerges. We are not sure what happens for Jonah in the belly of the whale, but we suggest that he is riding both currents of transformation.

decides that Jonah's leadership is less evolved than He thought. God concludes that Jonah is in need of some serious leadership development. And so, a whale rises from the ocean and swallows him. Jonah is now riding the Descending Current. He has to go into the deep and the dark to find his light. Jonah probably does not know this. All he knows is

God’s ‘tender mercies are on all His works’ (Ps. 145:9). Neither justice nor repentance, sin nor restitution, has ethnic or religious boundaries. The people of Nineveh are God’s creatures no less than others. That is what the book of Jonah is about.

Herein lay Jonah’s greatest flaw as leader. He wanted justice for others and compassion for himself.

“You will note that where you would think should be the end of Jonah, there was his safety.”

The Biblical Hero's Journey story of Jonah describes this process precisely. Jonah is walking along the beach one day, minding his own business, when God says to him: “Jonah, I want you to be a leader. I want you to be my prophet to Nineveh.” Jonah tries to deflect the request: “My calendar is a little busy. Sorry, can't make it.” God repeats the r

Jonah Sachs. A natural storyteller and the author of a bestselling book on how to use stories in marketing, Winning the Story Wars,

Read Jonah’s book Contagious as well. (And see word of mouth!)