Daily Lesson for August 16, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 8 verses 1 through 3:

And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

Earlier this year, our church had Will Willimon, former Bishop of the Northern Alabama United Methodist Conference, as our adult retreat leader.   One of the things that he said that has stuck with me was that in working with hundreds of Alabama churches over the last decade, he was always conscious that people can change. He noted specifically the racial attitudes of people in the churches he served. "No one could tell me they can't change, because they already had changed," he said.

Now I understand that attitudes about race and many other things are often unconscious. There is much work to be done in deprograming and reprogramming much within us. Yet, the fact remains, we can and have changed on many matters throughout the centuries, and we will continue to change. God will continue to change us. 

Which brings me to Saul.  There was no one more committed to his race and nationalistic in his thinking than Saul of Tarsus. A "Hebrew of Hebrews," he called himself. So intent on holding the line, he held the coats of the people who stoned the martyr Stephen.  And then his real ravaging of the Church began. This was the most unlikely of people for God to choose to one day become Christianity's greatest apostle. 

But people really do change; God changes them.  God changes all of us. 

And so, that brings me to the Sauls in my own life. Note I said, God changes us.  It's really not my place or call to try to change anyone. God does the convicting.  God performs the miracles. God is the heart surgeon. My role is to bear witness, remain open, pray for the surgery to be a success. 

That's sometimes harder than it sounds. If I'm honest, I don't always want Saul to change. But you know what, I really don't get a choice in this. God is going to change who God is going to change, whether I approve or not. God is in the change business.

People can change. God can change them. God makes Sauls into Pauls everyday.  God's desire is to change Saul and to see him flourish and prosper as a human being. The question I am left with then is to ask what my desire for Saul is.  And if it's anything other than God's desire, then maybe I'm the one who really needs to change . . .