After ten-plus years in radio and speaking all over this nation, I can say that most people I?ve met also have had a pretty checkered and muddled spiritual life and are more like Jonah than Joseph.  I cannot relate to the perfect flawless ones who follow faultlessly their purpose in life.  I find, thanks to my creepy heart, that I?m more like the guys who barely made it, who were seemingly always doing stupid junk, missing their purpose, chasing things they shouldn?t be chasing and paying retail for life?s lessons.  Usually it takes a celestially swung 2x4 to get me to wake me up and back on track.  

That?s why I get great relief from the bad boys of the Bible like Peter, Samson, David, and, of course, Jonah.  These were men who did great things yet were oft times more off base with their calling than DNC is in choosing Howard Dean to appeal to middle America.  The narratives that surround these men of messy spirituality show us how to move from disaster back to destiny. 

My ClashPoint is this: Purpose and destiny are serious business, and if we will not acquiesce to the call of a storm, then God will send a fish.  Yep ? the creator will appoint creation to bring chaos crashing in on our lives if we are not about our calling.  Never underestimate how hard life will pound us before we fall into lockstep with our purpose. 

However, when the lesson is learned, and one ceases to be the runaway prophet, he will be released from the woodshed of God?s love and restored to a great place in life.  As with Jonah, when responsibility is taken and when purpose is embraced, then one has just set in motion the forces for transformative positive personal change.  

Jonah, post-fish vomit, is now following his call, and the resultant effect is that hundreds of thousands of people are blessed because he ceased running from his purpose and, instead, embraced it.  If you have been stuck in life?s fish belly, feeling like there will be no tomorrow ? relax ? handle the discipline correctly ? and the situation will, as with Jonah, vomit you up, out and into greatness.

* Go to ClashRadio.com and check out Doug?s latest interview with Jake Hartwick Executive Vice President of the Outdoor Channel.