Listening for God's Direction

Listening for God's Direction

And another thing!

The story of Paul on the road to Damascus leaves me with questions.

Is it a conversion? Or more of a call story?

How long did Ananias take to get on board?

How was Paul received when he started preaching in synagogues in Damascus?

Who else was traveling with Paul? What happened with them?

What grabs me in this story, more than anything else, is that neither Paul nor Ananias saw this one coming. Paul (the apostle formerly known as Saul) was a practicing Jew. He had all the credentials and every single gold star, as he says in another place. It’s when he’s following God as closely as he can that God changes his life.

Paul doesn’t swerve from following God. He’s got that part down. What changes is how he understands God. He didn’t realize who Jesus is. Now he knows. It changes his life, for sure, but is it really a conversion?

Ananias, well, he doesn’t change religions, either, but he has to change his viewpoint. God asks him to do an incredibly challenging thing. Ananias has to go claim as a brother someone who initially came to town to harm him and his friends. That’s a big step. He’s putting himself in danger, if God isn’t right about Saul. He’s putting his head into the lion’s mouth and hoping that the lion is tame.

If it weren’t for the courage of these two men, Christianity would be so different! This tamed lion wrote so much of the New Testament! Paul founded churches around the Mediterranean. He preached to people he knew and people he didn’t know.

Paul’s courage that day—and for the rest of his life—was to admit that he had been wrong. Jesus wasn’t opposed to God. Jesus is God. To publicly change your stance on something that has been part of your identity is hard work. It can be painful, not to mention causing you to question other things about yourself.

Ananias’ courage was to admit that people can change. It takes a lot to forgive someone who has caused so much fear and pain. Ananias not only forgave Paul himself, but led others in the Christian community to trust him, too. He must have come for the first sermons in the synagogues. He guided Paul in the way that God was calling him to go.

What courage does the church need to follow God’s call right now? What courage do God’s followers need today to keep on following Jesus? Where is our readiness to change? Where is our readiness to listen? Where might we be wrong?

We have been living in unprecedented times for a long time now. The church navigates those times best when we are most willing to listen to each other and to God. Our leaders are best when we can be courageous and humble at the same time, like Ananias and Paul. May we all have the ears to hear what God is saying and the strength to do what God is calling us to do.