Jonah said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this storm has come upon you.” – Jonah 1:12

Remember the story of Jonah? The little boat on which Jonah was traveling was getting tossed around by the sea during a big storm. The sailors started throwing overboard everything that they felt they could in order to keep the boat afloat. Finally, they woke up Jonah where he was in the hold and he told them that if they wanted to stay afloat, it was Jonah himself that they would have to throw overboard. Of course, they didn’t want to but eventually they did and the storm stilled.

As we end 2014 and move into a new year, many of us are stopping and taking stock. For a lot of us, we will be throwing some things overboard. Too much stuff in the storage room? Overboard it goes. Too many things to do in the course of a day? Something is going overboard. All this in hopes that the storms of life that rage around us might somehow be stilled.

However…There might be something, that one thing that God wants us to throw overboard. Maybe it’s a sin that we can’t let go of. Maybe it’s an idol that we can’t seem to stop worshipping. Maybe it’s something that we have forgotten about but is there sleeping in the background.

Let’s join together in throwing overboard anything that might be causing the storms and keeping us from fulfilling our calling in Christ. If we do, we can look forward to 2015 as a new year full of light and promise, God bless and Happy New Year!

Rev. Pat Bell