Always in God’s workshop

The rest of the conference went well. My workshop was a joy to teach and the response indicated that the information and discussion was helpful. However, I thought about Friday often. What does a person do (other than lose their cool) when someone else is nosy or rude? Had that person been a Christian, Matthew 18 tells me to go to them one-on-one and tell them they have sinned against me, but in this case, I didn’t know their spiritual standing.

This morning’s reading from Acts 17 says: “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers. . . .”

Paul saw that the whole city was going against God, so what did he do? Had I been Paul, I would have been very direct and in-their-face. I’d rent a hall for an evangelistic crusade, or post billboards all over town, or take out an ad campaign in the local newspaper. How else do you get the attention of a city in sin?

He didn’t do that. Instead, he first talked to the people already concerned about spiritual matters. While some of them may not have be right with God, they were at least wanting to move in that direction. So my first step when someone of unknown spiritual standing is in sin: take it to others who care. If they are believers, we can pray together for wisdom. If not, they may be concerned enough to have a positive peer influence.

Next, Paul spent time “in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?”

By being vocal in public places, he captured the attention of the people who shaped the thinking of the city. While some were not sure what he was up to (“‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,’ because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection”), they wound up “taking him to the Areopagus, saying, ‘May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.’”

Paul took a round-about way to speak to the people about the issues that bothered him. This tells me that God’s way of doing things is not the way most people would first think. Blurting out a rebuke is a human idea that seldom works. While Paul eventually told them what he thought of their idol worship, his confrontation required preparation.

This story affirms that being provoked in my spirit when others are out of sync with God can be a God-thing. I need to recognize the difference between God-in-me being upset and merely my human nature being upset.

This passage also gives some clues what to do about it. My usual knee-jerk response just puts me out of sync too. It is far better to stop and think, and seek His wisdom. When I react in anger, I become just as useless to the Lord as the people who are annoying me.