A Normal Day

Saul of Tarsus woke up--he had his agenda set for today. His marching orders were in hand. Travel preparations set. Long before dawn he was up, and roused his grumpy and not-so-zealous traveling companions. "Come! Let's go! There is work to be done, miles to be traveled!"

And then.... Light. Voice.

Ananias woke up. He drowsily ate his figs, yogurt and honey. He looked out, another hot Damascus day. The sun was already out in full force. He turned back to his little abode and set himself for the day's normal business.

And then.... Vision. "Ananias! Rise and go...."

Peter climbed up to the roof. Staying at his friend's house, he escaped for a moment of prayer up on the rooftop at the sixth hour/12 p.m. Never having been one for prayer, he was now finding joy in it. Every day, he went up to pray. A joy-filled routine.

And then.... Sheet from heaven.

Cornelius stretched his legs. He needed a break from his work. A long, wearying day, filled with political hassles. The ninth hour/3 p.m. Just a short break before resuming work again. The heat bore down, shining of the white Cesarean buildings that Herod had built. He stretched his achy muscles, called for a servant to bring a cup of water.

And then.... "Cornelius!" Angel.

We wake up--and down our coffee (I'm partial to tea). Go about business. Feed the kids. Drive to work. Face a long day. Cope. Daily grind. Gratefully check things off the to-do list. Try to push anxieties out of our minds. Relax. Enjoy a dinner or a peaceful evening. Daily normals.

And then.... And sometimes, the "and then's" don't seem to come. These events in Acts seem like extraordinary events. And they were. But they happened in the normal. Paul going about his own agenda. Ananias a normal disciple of this recent Nazarene. Peter in a normal prayer time. Cornelius at 3 p.m. on a typical day. Our God is the God who works on behalf of those who wait for him (Isa. 64:4). He is the one propelling Acts; he is the one propelling our lives in the daily to-dos and the job interviews, the crumbs and cruxes and catastrophes and choruses of joy.

The "sixth hour," "ninth hour," "the next day," "while"--words of time. God's timing. The little hands on the clocks are part of his timing, his weaving among the swaying of the stars and the stellar solar dance, down to the beating of the heart, the delay, the change in plans, the normalness, the waiting anticipation. God's timing. Here we see how precise--Cornelius' years of prayers and faithfulness in seeking and seeking finally answered. Peter's vision not a moment too soon or too late. Saul, who had to learn the deep need for the grace of God, who perhaps wouldn't have been Paul if he hadn't seen Stephen or seen the depths of his sin against the Body of Christ. While Saul was traveling, God was preparing Ananias. Divine appointment, set up while neither of them knew. Cornelius and Peter, another God-ordained divine appointment, set up and prepared while they were going about their own business. God's timing. Whether we wait, yearn, grumble, cry out, rest--we serve the same God, the God of perfect timing, the God who does not neglect, the God in whose plan no time is wasted.If you feel stalled, feel bored, feel nothing, see no light at the end of the tunnel--God is still working!

From Saul and Ananias, and then to Peter. Luke's pen drops Saul from sight again. Thus even Luke's narration, introducing Saul and then leaving him, shows God is at work behind the scenes, in the normal and every day. What happened to Saul? God was working. We don't see. And many times things are clouded--we don't see. But God was working in the unseen, in the unheard, in the untold. And when Luke's pen tells of Saul again, he is Paul, set apart by the Spirit, embarking on missionary journeys from a church whose eyes were beginning to be ready to see the gospel go to the ends of the earth.

When we don't see, don't hear, wait, yearn, cry out, grumble, complain, feel bored or restless, and anticipatorily count down the days which can't go too fast until X, worry, anxious, we look to the same God. We read of his perfect timing, his always working, and his breaking into the normal. We remember. We see God. We cling. We trust.

And then...

Our God will come. He will come through.