Today's passage is Acts 14:1-18. At Iconium Paul and Barnabas preach boldy and the Holy Spirit graces them with wonders but the community is divided over them, and the leaders decide to stone them. They escape and go to Lystra where Paul heals a cripple. The response of the town is call Paul and Barnabas gods, and they are barely able to prevent the people from sacrificing animals to them.
The ups and downs of life nearly overwhelm Paul and Barnabas.
They preach the same message in two towns but get wildly different responses.
One group of cititzens want to kill them over it because it's a threat to them while the others see them as gods, missing the point of the good news and a healing.
What a day at my school!
I praised a departing teacher who has been at the school for eight years.
I praised the equilibrium of her character, unlike the citizens in today's passage.
A grade 1 girl suddenly collapsed in the playground and had to be rushed to hospital, causing differing reactions to our emergency procedures.
A group of high school teachers came to me with a plan for a special day focused exclusively on the prospect of reunification of the two Koreas.
It would be a day when the curriculum of all subjects is scrapped for something excitingly authentic with government guest speakers.
At the end of the day a fight broke out between two boys in high school with mercifully only minor injuries.
I suspended them for a day while we sort it all out.
Finally, one of our teachers broke down over the news that a close relative of hers had just committed suicide.
We rode an emotional roller-coaster today.
Over and over I was driven to my Bible to read today's passage and pray.
Without today's message of consistency in the face of extreme situations and reactions and God's sustaining grace, I can only imagine how badly I would've handled things.
I was able to praise God for the day's events and not once did I want to run away and get another job.
God's responsibility training in this job is finally beginning to take hold.
Lord, keep me mindful that your message of the good news of salvation is not subject to the ups and downs of life's vicissitudes. In you is consistencey.
You are my rock, my refuge and my fortress against Satan and a world that so often makes no sense. Praise your holy name. Amen.
