Dear Truro Family,
This past week, the church calendar noted the conversion of the apostle Paul, outlined in Acts 9. We spent the opening chunk of our staff meeting this past Tuesday reading and discussing Paul’s conversion together. If you haven’t read this story in some time, it is worth reading.
Luke, the author of the book of Acts, tells the story of Saul (who would become known as Paul), a Pharisee actively persecuting the fledgling Christian community, and of the dramatic encounter Saul has with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus.
This story is chock full of symbolism and significance, from the three days Saul spent blind (in the dark), to the way he immediately mimics Jesus by proclaiming the gospel in the synagogue, to the irony of the persecutor becoming the persecuted.
Even the so-called minor characters have much to teach us. As Kingsley Brinkley, our wonderful bookkeeper noted in that staff meeting on Tuesday, Ananias – the follower of Jesus that God sends to Saul in his blindness – hears the voice of God and obeys, even in his fear. He goes where (and when!) God sends him. Oh, that we would be the sort of people who recognize the voice of God and go where He sends us!
Of course, the story of Saul/Paul’s conversion isn’t Ananias’s story. It’s not even really, primarily Saul’s story. It’s God’s story. As Jamie reminded us on Sunday, every story whispers His name. Some of them – like this one – shout it aloud.
God calls the unlikeliest of people. He reminds us that it is His story. And He invites us to participate in His story, sending first Ananias, and then Saul, that the unexpected might know the love of Jesus.
Here’s the question I’d like to invite you (and us) to consider in light of Acts 9: to whom is God sending you? How is He inviting you to participate in His story? And will you go?
Your friend in Christ,
Mike+