Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 14 verses 19b and 20:
Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. 20 But when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city. The next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.
With the passing of Congressman and civil rights legend John Lewis, many of us have been taken with what he liked to call "Good Trouble". Over and over again Lewis was called a troublemaker. But rather than reject it, he embraced it. If you were opposed to equality, to enfranchisement, to equal protection, and to a more just and inclusive democracy, then indeed John Lewis was a troublemaker for you. And, the Congressman said, it was "good trouble".
I used to not like so much the tactics of Paul and Barnabas and the early apostles. They caused a lot of trouble where they went -- in the synagogues and in the cities. I didn't think that was necessary, and certainly not polite. I didn't like it because I didn't understand it.
But when I was in my early twenties I discovered John Lewis, and started reading about "good trouble" and came to realize what he did was exactly like what the early apostles did. No, it may not have been polite -- in the sense of Southern politeness which said blacks needed to go along to get along; but it was absolutely necessary for changing things in America. And, it's what helped me see these tactics from the apostles in a whole new light.
Read chapter 13 and it says there was an apostle named John who departed, but left the others to continue on.
Our John has left us; but we continue on. And I pray we continue on in the same way -- with the "good trouble" the good apostle taught us.
NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible this year. Tomorrow we will diverge from Acts by reading the book of James.
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