The Jonah Reflex

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The Jonah Reflex

• Khinckley1_at_yahoo.com

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The Last Photo I ever took Contest
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August 13th, 1856

• A little less than four weeks travelling brought
  us to the Missouri river. We crossed it on a
  steam ferry-boat, and encamped at the town of
  Florence, Nebraska, six miles above Omaha, where
  we remained about a week, making our final
  preparations for crossing the plains.
• The elders seemed to be divided in their
  judgment as to the practicability of our reaching
  Utah in safety at so late a season of the year,
  and the idea was entertained for a day or two of
  making our winter quarters on the Elkhorn, Wood
  river, or some eligible location in Nebraska but
  it did not meet with general approval. A monster
  meeting was called to consult the people about
  it.
• The emigrants were entirely ignorant of the
  country and climatesimple, honest, eager to go
  to Zion at once, and obedient as little
  children to the servants of God. Under these
  circumstances it was natural that they should
  leave their destinies in the hands of the elders.
  These men with one exception, favoured going
  on. They prophesied in the name of God that we
  should get through in safety. Were we not Gods
  people, and would he not protect us? Even the
  elements he would arrange for our good, etc.
• But Levi Savage used his common sense and his
  knowledge of the country. He declared positively
  that to his certain knowledge we could not cross
  the mountains with a mixed company of aged
  people, women, and little children, so late in
  the season without much suffering, sickness, and
  death Savage was accordingly defeated, as the
  majority were against him. He then added
  Brethren and sisters, what I have said I know to
  be true but, seeing you are to go forward, I
  will go with you, will help you all I can, will
  work with you, will rest with you, will suffer
  with you, and, if necessary, I will die with you.
  May God in his mercy bless and preserve us.
  Amen.

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Elder Bednar

• You and I may know the right things to
  do that is knowledge. By if you and I are
  intelligent, we will consistently do the right
  things. It is one thing to know what to do, but
  intelligence is consistently doing the right
  thing.
• It important and good and necessary to know that
  the gospel is true. Intelligence is consistently
  being true to the gospel

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J. Golden Kimball

• An acquaintance met J. Golden on the street one
  day and in conversation asked, "Do you believe
  that Jonah was swallowed by the whale?"
• "When I get to heaven I'll ask Jonah," J. Golden
  answered.
• "But," said the man, "what if is not there?"
• "Then you will have to ask him," Golden quickly
  replied.

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Jonah, Chapter 1

• Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son
  of Amittai, saying,
• Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry
  against it for their wickedness is come up
  before me.
• But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the
  presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa and
  he found a ship going to Tarshish so he paid the
  fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with
  them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

WOE to the bloody city! Nineveh is all full of
lies and robbery the prey departeth not The
noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of
the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of
the jumping chariots. The horseman lifteth up
both the bright sword and the glittering spear
and there is a multitude of slain, and a great
number of carcases and there is none end of
their corpses they stumble upon their corpses
Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the
well-favoured harlot, the mistress of
witchcrafts, that selleth nations through
her whoredoms, and families through her
witchcrafts (Nahum 31-3).
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The Jonah Travel Plan
Tarshish
Nineveh
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Question

• Why did Jonah run?
• I fled before unto Tarshish for I knew that thou
  art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger,
  and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the
  evil.
• Do we cheer for the day when the wicked will get
  theirs rather than pray for their repentance?

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Neal A. Maxwell

• Surely, as Latter-day Saints we must
  avoid the Jonah reflex. Moreover, knowing
  of and believing in the prophecies does not
  relieve us of the responsibility to do all we can
  to avoid the conditions which, unchecked, will
  bring them to pass.
• Jesus . . . prophesied that in the last days,
  because of iniquity, the love of many would wax
  cold (Matthew 2412). Yet we must not regard
  iniquity or human hardening and coarsening with a
  sense of inevitability

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Jeffrey R. Holland

• In the story of the Prodigal Son, we can
  miss, if we are not careful, the account of an
  elder son, for the opening line of the
  Saviors account reads, A certain man had two
  sonsand He might have added, both of whom
  were lost and both of whom needed to come home.
• This older son is not so much angry that the
  other has come home as he is angry that his
  parents are so happy about it.
• No, he who has virtually everything, and who has
  in his hardworking, wonderful way earned it,
  lacks the one thing that might make him the
  complete man of the Lord he nearly is. He has yet
  to come to the compassion and mercy, the
  charitable breadth of vision to see that this is
  not a rival returning. It is his brother. As his
  father pled with him to see, it is one who was
  dead and now is alive. It is one who was lost and
  now is found.
• Who is it that whispers so subtly in our ear that
  a gift given to another somehow diminishes the
  blessings we have received? Who makes us feel
  that if God is smiling on another, then He surely
  must somehow be frowning on us? You and I both
  know who does thisit is the father of all
  liesIt is Lucifer, our common enemy, whose cry
  down through the corridors of time is always and
  to everyone, Give me thine honor.

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Elder Holland Cont.

• One observer has written In a world
  that constantly compares people, ranking
  them as more or less intelligent, more or
  less attractive, more or less successful, it is
  not easy to really believe in a divine love
  that does not do the same.
• When I hear someone praised, he says, it is
  hard not to think of myself as less praiseworthy
  when I read about the goodness and kindness of
  other people, it is hard not to wonder whether I
  myself am as good and kind as they and when I
  see trophies, rewards, and prizes being handed
  out to special people, I cannot avoid asking
  myself why that didnt happen to me.
• Most thou shalt not commandments are meant to
  keep us from hurting others, but I am convinced
  the commandment not to covet is meant to keep us
  from hurting ourselves.

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Psalm of Jonah

• I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the
  Lord, and he heard me
• out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou
  heardest my voice.
• For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the
  midst of the seas and the floods compassed me
  about all thy billows and thy waves passed over
  me.
• Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight yet I
  will look again toward thy holy temple.

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Elder Eyring

• A family moved into a house near us. The
  home was new, so I was part of the crew of
  Latter-day Saints who spent a number of
  nights putting in landscaping. I remember the
  last night, standing next to the husband of
  the family as we finished. He surveyed our
  work and said to us standing nearby, This is the
  third yard you Mormons have put in for us, and I
  think this is the best. And then he quietly but
  firmly told me of the great satisfaction he got
  from membership in his own church, a conversation
  we had often in the years he lived there.
• In all that time, the acts of kindness extended
  to him and his family never ceased because the
  neighbors really came to love them. One evening,
  I came home to see a truck in his driveway. I had
  been told they were moving to another state. I
  approached to see if I could help. I didnt
  recognize the man I saw loading household things
  into the truck. He said quietly as I drew near,
  Hello, Brother Eyring. I hadnt recognized him
  because he was the son, now grown older, who had
  lived there, married, and moved away. And because
  of the love of many for him, he was now a
  baptized member of the Church. I dont know the
  end of that story because it will have no end.
  But I know that it begins with love.