There is a picture, some abstract shapes all in black and white, with four tiny dots in the middle. And if you focus on the four dots for 30 seconds and then close your eyes, you will see Jesus. That’s what the instructions said, so I did it. And, sure enough, that is what happened. When I closed my eyes an image that I recognized as Jesus appeared before me.
It’s an optical illusion. These are fun things to play around with. There are some that have two different images in them – like the one with an old witch and a young woman, or the one with the musician and the girl’s face. Usually you see one of them to start with, but to see the other image it is like your brain has to switch tracks to get a different perspective. I find that I need to relax my eyes, soften my focus, to allow that to happen. Seeing involves more than just the eye.
Listening is that way too. Even when you hear the words someone speaks, are you really hearing what they’re saying to you? Remember back in the 90’s we had books like You Just Don’t Understand and Men Are from Mars and Women Are from Venus? These books tried to explain to us that when a man says something it doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing as when I woman says it. And that men and women may need interpreters to communicate with each other.
How we perceive things – seeing and hearing – is more complicated than just seeing and hearing, because of the nature of our human brains. We know there is a context for everything. There is a story.
The story that our author, Luke, is telling in the book of Acts is about God’s design for us. It is a story that says God – by the power of the Holy Spirit – is in control.
The Apostle Paul and his companions are forbidden by the Spirit to speak in Asia. The Spirit does not allow them to pass into Bithinya. They keep going, farther and farther westward, until they are in the port city of Troas, on the Aegean Sea. If we follow their travels on a map of the region, we see that they are being gently pushed in a particular direction – toward Macedonia.
“Come over to Macedonia and help us,” Paul hears in a dream, and so they go.
Luke and Paul and the others traveling with him all understood that the Spirit of God was with them, guiding them, empowering them. And sometimes disempowering them. What does it mean to say that the Spirit did not allow them to speak in Asia? Are we to imagine them being gagged by an invisible hand? What does it mean to say that the Spirit did not allow them to enter Bithinya? Are we to imagine that they ran into a gigantic force field as they approached the city gates? Certainly not.
What we should understand here is that the way they understand the world and themselves in it is through the lens of a purposeful and active and creative God at work in it.
It may not have always been that way for them. We know some of Paul’s story – that he was educated in the law of Moses. That he was a Pharisee, a teacher of the law in Israel. That he was an active member of the group opposed to Jesus and his followers. We know that he made it his job to seek out and destroy the church because he was convinced that this movement was an offense to the law of God. That is, until the Spirit knocked him to the ground on the road between Jerusalem and Damascus. He was struck blind, and he heard a voice.
It was all very dramatic – no subtlety here. The Spirit of God would have to take away his vision, so he could learn to see in a new way, and be able to hear what he couldn’t hear before. Only then would Paul be able to follow God’s calling for him. We don’t know about Luke or his traveling companions, whether they had similar stories. But one thing I know is that God has more ways of opening ears and eyes and hearts and minds than we can imagine. And another thing I know is that God desires to open our ears and eyes and hearts and minds so we may enter into God’s joy as well as God’s purpose.
God had a purpose in sending Paul to Macedonia.
Macedonia was a Roman province in the northern region of the Greek peninsula. Thessalonika was the capital city, and Philippi was also in this region. We know these cities from the letters Paul wrote to them, Thessalonians and Philippians. When they crossed into Macedonia, Paul and his team went straight to Philippi. On the Jewish sabbath day they went out looking for the place of prayer, as was their custom. Evidently, the Jewish community in Philippi was not large enough for a synagogue, but there was a spot near the river where believers would congregate. Here we meet Lydia.
Lydia was an interesting woman. She was a dealer in purple cloth, which was a luxury item because of the difficulty in making purple dye. So Lydia is probably a woman of some consequence. She is also, apparently, unmarried and the head of her own household. She is an unusual woman. She invites the missionaries to stay at her house and they accept her invitation. Thus we have the first Christian congregation in Europe.
It wasn’t Paul’s intention to go there, but the Spirit gently pushed him in that direction.
The story about Paul’s journey to Macedonia is a story that says something more than just the historical facts. The story tells us that there is a choice Paul faced, and that each of us faces. Paul had a plan and he could have persisted in his plan, even as he encountered so many obstructions. He could have tried again and again and again to do the thing he wanted to do even while he was failing at it. Or, he could do what he did – switch paths, follow the lead of the Spirit, which took him to Macedonia.
I don’t know if it was frustrating or hard for Paul to do, letting go of his plans. But I have to believe that it was. After all, he was only human.
We find it hard, for a lot of reasons. We are taught at a young age, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Persistence is a worthy discipline. But as we grow older we also have to learn another discipline, that is, don’t beat your head against a stone wall. That stone wall might be the Spirit advising you to go another way.
Holding on to our plans, our dreams, loosely can be a very hard – even painful – thing to do. To be able to let go of what we imagine as being our destiny, for the sake of something that hasn’t even been revealed to us yet, is something that takes humility and grace. And we have seen too many people fail to do that – such as politicians who refuse to acknowledge that they have reached the end of the path. But it’s not only politicians; all kinds of people do it, because power and control is a heady thing – even if it’s only power over your own life.
But if we don’t acknowledge one ending to await the next beginning, we will never know the joy and purpose God has in mind for us.
The only thing to do is to listen. To watch. The Spirit will show us the next step.
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Photo Credit: marekpiwnicki.pictorem.com
