Daily Lesson for July 7, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 9 verses 1 through 9:

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ 5He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’ 7The men who were travelling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 8Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Saul fell.

Proud Saul, the Hebrew of Hebrews, the golden boy of the Pharisaic movement which was to take back the land and the people and the nation for God's sake, suddenly discovered that he had been fighting the wrong fight against the wrong people. He thought he was God's man in Texas; and then a light from heaven flashed, and a voice from the clouds thundered. And Saul fell. He fell hard. 

The Bible says "God opposes the proud."  And so God fells us and then cuts our pride down to size. It hurts like hell, and the embarrassment of it we can't stand. But the good LORD doesn't mind. He knows what's good for us. A fall is good for us. 

Richard Rohr calls it "falling upward".  And I've heard others call it "falling to grace".  It's how we get broken in order to be made anew. It's how the hard heart of pride and prejudice gets cracked open.  It's how Saul becomes Paul.

"First the fall, then the redemption," Julian of Norwich said; "and both the grace of God."

Amen.