Great, give me ten more!

 This week's verse is Acts 23:11:

The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Have courage, for just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”

 This verse happens after Paul has had a very stressful and dangerous experience in Jerusalem. He went there to worship and conduct some church business, and found himself in the middle of an angry mob that tried to kill him. The mob got so violent that they had to call in the riot police to break it up. And then the following night, God tells him he's going to have to do it again, but this time in the capital city.

It's like a bad gym teacher. You give your all to do an exercise, only to be told that it's just one of a long set of them. Or it's a bit like French bureaucracy, where you are told you need two forms filled out, and turn them in only to be asked to fill out ten other ones. How would you react, if you were assaulted, attacked by your own people, and then in trouble with the law, and then were asked to do it again? How would you feel to be told that your struggle is not over, that God is not coming to put an end to it, but that it's only the beginning?

We don't often think of God asking us to do that. We're supposed to only have encouraging promises to share with each other. We're supposed to only be told that we'll be rich and successful and will have an easy life, right? And yet here God is, telling Paul, who has already suffered so much, that he's got to go through some more horrible stuff.

For Paul, it's worth it. God comes and stands near to him. Is God real enough to us that we can tell that he is standing near to us? Could we even tell the difference between near and far with him? Do we even allow the idea of him "standing" at all? And yet God paid Paul this very intimate visit to comfort and encourage him in what he was about to have to do. And Paul recognized it.

I like verses like these, because they're like the B-sides of the Bible. Everyone remembers the Sermon on the Mount, or Jesus doing miracles, but what about the time God stood near Paul and said "Have courage" ?