The Only Way

Flannery O'Connor once said of the Apostle Paul: "I reckon the Lord knew that the only way to make a Christian out of that one was to knock him off his horse."

That makes me smile. 

No doubt, Paul’s conversion was dramatic — a blinding light on the road to Damascus, a voice from heaven, three days without sight. Most of us don't have a story like that. For most of us it is much more subtle. A tug at the heart. A stirring in the soul. A pang of conscience. The quiet words of someone we love and trust. A slow turning rather than a sudden knock.

And yet — however it happens — something shifts. Something opens. The person we were heading toward becoming is no longer quite the person we want to be.

I have heard enough of your stories over the years to know that God is remarkably creative in the ways he gets through to us. Some of you have your own version of being knocked off the horse. Others have been gently, persistently nudged in a new direction over many years.

What matters is not the method. What matters is the turning. And the God who knocked Paul off his horse is the same God who is patient enough to wait for the rest of us to find our way around. I find that deeply comforting. Because most of us are not dramatic conversion stories. We are slow turners — people who move toward God gradually, haltingly, sometimes taking two steps forward and one step back. And yet that same pursuing love is at work in us. Meeting us where we are. Waiting. Nudging. Never giving up.

Prayer: God of grace, you know exactly what it takes to get through to each of us. However you are working in our lives right now — dramatically or quietly — give us the grace to respond. We want to turn toward you. Amen.

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