Daily Devotion August 22, 2014 Acts 9:8 “Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened, he could see nothing; so they led him by his hand and brought him into Damascus.” There’s someplace in the bible where we are told that God’s ways are not the ways of humans. In a hymn by William Cowper we are reminded that God moves in mysterious ways, which is to say that sometimes the actions of God might seem strange to us humans. It seems that God tends to use some very questionable folk in the furthering if God’s Kingdom. If you look closely at the stories of Noah, David, and Moses, just to name a few, you will discover that they had questionable backgrounds. In fact, given what we have to do in this day and age with people who want to work in the “church” they would be politely told “No thank you.” Let’s consider Saul’s qualifications as a child of the Covenant; “…circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews, as to the law, A Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” These or the attributes that Saul lists in Phil 3:5-6 after his name change. Remember at this point in Acts, Saul had arrest warrants for all of those following “the Way” of Jesus. Given those things it would seem at least curious that would choose Saul to become Paul. Yet that is exactly what God did. Saul was struck blind on the Damascus Road and had to rely on the folk who were with him to lead him to safety. For three days he couldn’t see. For three days he nothing to eat or drink. I can’t begin to imagine what went through his mind. I wonder if he thought about the stoning of Stephen. I wonder if he thought about what he was planning to do. I wonder if he thought about the kind of folk that God ended up using in the story of the Covenant People, a drunk, a murderer, a philanderer along with being a murderer, Noah, Moses, David. I wonder because if it had been me…well I probably would have already passed on from fright. But God had plans for this bounty hunter…and God has plans for us as well. The Damascus Road story reminds us that God has plans that we know nothing about. It reminds us that God chooses to use whom God will for the glory and enlargement of the Kingdom. It reminds us that regardless of what we have done in the past or had planned to do in the future, God can and will redeem that. It reminds us that those who do great and small things in the story of God’s people, then and now, come to their tasks warts and all. Today’s story is a reminder that we have to be struck blind before we can really see. I don’t mean literally blind like Saul, but blind to our own desires and ambitions so that we can see clearly the desire and will of God. We all travel the “Damascus Road” and God will use as God wills, warts and all. Peace, Fr. Reid
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 13:53:45 +0000
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