Baffling transformations
This week's goodness is on Acts 9:19-22:
Saul (soon to be Paul) had a rather jarring conversion experience. God dazzled him and knocked him off his high horse, and some short time later he was out doing God's work. We can look at that and wonder why it takes some of us so long to get out and do what we need to be doing. Saul's transformation happened practically overnight. God harvested him at the moment he was ripe. Consider that for a moment.
His conversion was also a visible change in direction. People were astonished. How many people were astonished at the changes that took place in our lives as a side effect of our conversion? Saul's changes were plain and easy to see: one day he's out killing people and preaching against Jesus, and the next he's out loving people and preaching for Jesus. People had to ask themselves, "Hey wait, isn't that Saul?"
The thing I like is that it said that Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews by proving that Jesus was the Messiah. His message didn't vanish after his conversion. He wasn't stuck in that moment in time. God continued to use him. The learning he had from before he was a Christian was now weaponized for God's kingdom. He baffled the Jews. He wasn't irrelevant. They couldn't ignore him. They were like "Wait, we thought we knew this guy. We thought he was on our team. And yet now we're starting to see that the Christians are right. What's happening?!"
These verses describe an experience that is everything that a direct encounter with God can be. It's clear and irrefutable. It's sudden and irreversible. It defies reason in ways only a supernatural experience can. If we brushed against an experience like this, would we embrace it as wholly as Saul did? Or would we dilute it with our modern meat-centric reasoning? "Maybe I just went blind from heat stroke." "Maybe Jesus is just one of many paths, similar to the one I've been on in the Judeo-etc tradition." "Maybe it's time for me to retire from ministry because I was clearly wrong about the Jesus thing. I've lost my credibility." "Maybe I need to do some more research before I make a jackass of myself again." "Thousands of years of tradition can't be wrong. Maybe I just imagined the whole experience." "I don't want to get killed like those Christians have been. Maybe I'll just write a book or something under an assumed name." Saul didn't do any of that.
What if there's something we're doing wrong, and God wants to change us as powerfully as he changed Saul. Maybe he wants to reengineer us like bionic disciples, making us faster and better, seemingly overnight. If he came to us in a flash, would it be worth his while? Or would we just continue down the same path anyway? And assuming we did change, what if he wanted us to go further and preach it? Would he have gone through all of the trouble just for us to keep the miracle in a box and never show it to anyone? Saul was so transformed that they had to give him a different name. It wasn't a stage name, or a stripper name, or a screen name. It was a different name because he was a different person in the same way that a butterfly is different from a caterpillar.
It's useful to stop and consider questions like this every now and then. If God came and interrupted me, would I be ready? Would I recognize him? Would I allow him to shape me into the very opposite of what I made myself into, even if that alienated my "family" from me? Would I allow him to make me so different from who I am now, including traits I really like and which others value, that I would need a different name? Is it possible that something I'm zealous for right now is actually working against his plan? Is it possible that something I believe about Him and the world around me, and have believed for years, is actually wrong?
I'm not saying Saul worried about any of these things, but when the time came he was ready. He chose the right path, and accepted the right beliefs, and did the right things. Paul wasn't hopelessly entangled with Saul, so God was able to call that part of him into being. Saul wasn't too tied to his ministry career to change direction. Saul wasn't so full of himself that he couldn't accept new truths. (Are any truths new?) What might a Saul experience look like in our lives? Would we let it happen? If Saul didn't, the Bible might have ended up shorter, and many thousands more people might have ended up in hell for eternity. Be ready.
Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.
Saul (soon to be Paul) had a rather jarring conversion experience. God dazzled him and knocked him off his high horse, and some short time later he was out doing God's work. We can look at that and wonder why it takes some of us so long to get out and do what we need to be doing. Saul's transformation happened practically overnight. God harvested him at the moment he was ripe. Consider that for a moment.
His conversion was also a visible change in direction. People were astonished. How many people were astonished at the changes that took place in our lives as a side effect of our conversion? Saul's changes were plain and easy to see: one day he's out killing people and preaching against Jesus, and the next he's out loving people and preaching for Jesus. People had to ask themselves, "Hey wait, isn't that Saul?"
The thing I like is that it said that Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews by proving that Jesus was the Messiah. His message didn't vanish after his conversion. He wasn't stuck in that moment in time. God continued to use him. The learning he had from before he was a Christian was now weaponized for God's kingdom. He baffled the Jews. He wasn't irrelevant. They couldn't ignore him. They were like "Wait, we thought we knew this guy. We thought he was on our team. And yet now we're starting to see that the Christians are right. What's happening?!"
These verses describe an experience that is everything that a direct encounter with God can be. It's clear and irrefutable. It's sudden and irreversible. It defies reason in ways only a supernatural experience can. If we brushed against an experience like this, would we embrace it as wholly as Saul did? Or would we dilute it with our modern meat-centric reasoning? "Maybe I just went blind from heat stroke." "Maybe Jesus is just one of many paths, similar to the one I've been on in the Judeo-etc tradition." "Maybe it's time for me to retire from ministry because I was clearly wrong about the Jesus thing. I've lost my credibility." "Maybe I need to do some more research before I make a jackass of myself again." "Thousands of years of tradition can't be wrong. Maybe I just imagined the whole experience." "I don't want to get killed like those Christians have been. Maybe I'll just write a book or something under an assumed name." Saul didn't do any of that.
What if there's something we're doing wrong, and God wants to change us as powerfully as he changed Saul. Maybe he wants to reengineer us like bionic disciples, making us faster and better, seemingly overnight. If he came to us in a flash, would it be worth his while? Or would we just continue down the same path anyway? And assuming we did change, what if he wanted us to go further and preach it? Would he have gone through all of the trouble just for us to keep the miracle in a box and never show it to anyone? Saul was so transformed that they had to give him a different name. It wasn't a stage name, or a stripper name, or a screen name. It was a different name because he was a different person in the same way that a butterfly is different from a caterpillar.
It's useful to stop and consider questions like this every now and then. If God came and interrupted me, would I be ready? Would I recognize him? Would I allow him to shape me into the very opposite of what I made myself into, even if that alienated my "family" from me? Would I allow him to make me so different from who I am now, including traits I really like and which others value, that I would need a different name? Is it possible that something I'm zealous for right now is actually working against his plan? Is it possible that something I believe about Him and the world around me, and have believed for years, is actually wrong?
I'm not saying Saul worried about any of these things, but when the time came he was ready. He chose the right path, and accepted the right beliefs, and did the right things. Paul wasn't hopelessly entangled with Saul, so God was able to call that part of him into being. Saul wasn't too tied to his ministry career to change direction. Saul wasn't so full of himself that he couldn't accept new truths. (Are any truths new?) What might a Saul experience look like in our lives? Would we let it happen? If Saul didn't, the Bible might have ended up shorter, and many thousands more people might have ended up in hell for eternity. Be ready.
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