Acts: The Tyranny of the Tiny Things (21-25)
Sometimes the mission field can feel like an exercise in simply living. Then again, life anywhere can be that way. We have so many unplanned, but unavoidable things that clutter our lives and our time and push the “big” things back: paperwork, reports, shopping, cooking, illness, etc. Trying to maintain a presence in another culture and another language can make all those things twice as life-consuming as normal.
It is an encouragement to know that Paul also had these sorts of problems, and that Luke saw them as important enough to his story to include them. Okay, not everything Paul had happen in this section of Acts was a “little thing,” in fact they were life and death sorts of things, but they were things that kept him from his goals for years. God had directed him to Rome, but had also sent him to Jerusalem first and we can be sure that all these setbacks were a part of God’s greater plan. Luke uses over a sixth of his book telling us about the church reports, demonstrations, jail time, life threatening plots, and governors seeking bribes that consume Paul’s time for years before he is able to finally head out to Rome, and even then he is delayed again.
We always remind ourselves that true worship is a life lived, even the ordinary moments of life, for the glory of God. So take heart. Even when it seems like we are spinning our wheels and doing good just to get from one day to the next, the lives we live are holy. That is not just to say that our lives have been made holy by the justifying work of Christ, but our very lives—the moments we are given—are holy. Even the little things can be done to God’s glory.
It is an encouragement to know that Paul also had these sorts of problems, and that Luke saw them as important enough to his story to include them. Okay, not everything Paul had happen in this section of Acts was a “little thing,” in fact they were life and death sorts of things, but they were things that kept him from his goals for years. God had directed him to Rome, but had also sent him to Jerusalem first and we can be sure that all these setbacks were a part of God’s greater plan. Luke uses over a sixth of his book telling us about the church reports, demonstrations, jail time, life threatening plots, and governors seeking bribes that consume Paul’s time for years before he is able to finally head out to Rome, and even then he is delayed again.
We always remind ourselves that true worship is a life lived, even the ordinary moments of life, for the glory of God. So take heart. Even when it seems like we are spinning our wheels and doing good just to get from one day to the next, the lives we live are holy. That is not just to say that our lives have been made holy by the justifying work of Christ, but our very lives—the moments we are given—are holy. Even the little things can be done to God’s glory.
This is good for a stay-at-home mom to hear. Thanks for the encouragement.
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