In this story, Jonah was told to go to a certain place and do a certain thing. He didn't want to, so he tried to go somewhere else to do something else. Something good, no doubt, but something else.
As the story goes, Jonah had an opportunity to reconsider his decision. Three days later, Jonah cleaned his act up and did what was expected of him.
Like Jonah, we all have fear. We often don't want to do what we ought to do, what we said we would do. We all feel inadequate, incapable and indifferent at times. But we can't hide from it for long. Responsibility finds us, ready or not.
Sometimes we try to hide from our responsibilities by rejecting them, but also by working only half-heartedly, or by living only half-heartedly. We hide from our potential by settling for only part of what we could become.
When we have a chance to work, we should accept responsibility – full responsibility – and act wisely and enthusiastically. Otherwise, we're just so much fish food.
