Ordinary Day

True story.

One day a man named Paul, and his friend, Barnabas, were walking through the city of Lystra. They were minding their own business, talking with people. A man, one with crippled feet, overheard Paul. Paul looked at the man and sensed the man believed the things Paul was talking about. And so Paul told the man to stand on his feet. And the man did. Whatever had ailed the man had been healed, in an instant.

There were some witnesses to this dramatic event, and they did what witnesses to great events often do. They hung around Paul and Barnabas, making a big fuss about them. They went so far as to give Paul and Barnabas acclaim as being gods.

This treatment was over the top, as far as Paul and Barnabas were concerned, especially since they had been about the business of proclaiming to people the good news about Jesus. Jesus, they knew, was truly God, and they most certainly were not. And so either Paul or Barnabas said this to the crowd:

“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God…"

The healing that Paul did was extraordinary, but everything else in the story was ordinary. The over-reaction of the crowd, with its instantaneous elevation of Paul and Barnabas as celebrities. The teaching or preaching of Paul that preceded the healing. The call after the healing to turn from "vain things" and turn to a "living God." All very ordinary.

Things aren’t much different today. Celebrities wherever you happen to look. People's lives consumed by all kinds of things that create distance from God. Not things that are always inherently bad, but there are things that can be a problem when we pursue them to such a degree that we are moving away from God. And the call to turn from those things, and have faith in God. All very ordinary.

Jesus gave the ordinary call himself this way in Mark 1:14-15:

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,  and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Here is perhaps the best part of the whole story. It hasn't all been written yet, and so you and I still have the time and opportunity to turn from vain things to a living God. To the living God.

We don’t need a special act to convince us. All we need is to see our need, and see our only hope, the hope received by faith in Jesus. An ordinary day will do. After all, it’s a true story.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.