March 5

 

Acts 28

 

Murderers and Gods

I like a phrase I have been hearing frequently. It goes something like the following. “Life is 10 percent action and 90 percent reaction.” I don’t know who said it and I don’t know if I agree with the percentages but I definitely believe the premise and the comparison. Some of us tend more to act on things and some us tend more to react to things, but we all deal with unexpected actions that prompt sometimes unexpected reactions.  Like the time I was flying with a friend in his Cherokee 6 private airplane. We had taken off from his home airport and were practicing what are called “touch and go’s.” at a less busy one. A touch and go is a maneuver where the pilot simulates a landing but as soon as the plane makes contact with the runway, he applies the throttle again and the plane roars into the air once more. I was in the back seat of the plane. My friend the pilot was in the left or pilot’s seat and another friend was in the co-pilot seat. On the last one of these touch and go maneuvers we added a little unexpected twist to the normal sequence. My friend simulated the touch and then the go and then as we turned to head back to his home airport at about 2,500 feet the engine did what is commonly called a “stall.” I don’t know a lot about flying but this didn’t seem like a good time for the engine to quit running. I promised myself that if we survived this event I would ask if there is a maneuver called the “touch and go and stall.” Obviously, I survived, I did ask and there is not. They are actually very rare; both the “touch and go and stall” and the surviving of one. Three very distinct reactions followed the action of the engine stalling. Fortunately, my friend the pilot was trained well and followed emergency protocol. He started pulling levers and pushing buttons and adjusting flaps etc, etc. My other friend in the co-pilot seat was screaming and flailing and praying. I think he was praying because I heard the words God and Jesus several times. In my case, I simply remember this overwhelming sense of peace and then faith rising up in me as I said something that surprised even me. I said, “In the name of Jesus, fly!” That’s it. I have no idea if it was that statement, or the pilot pushing and pulling and adjusting or the “co-pilot” screaming and flailing or some odd combination of all three, but at that very instant the motor roared back to life, we circled back to the airport and did a simple but very welcomed “touch and slow to a stop” Each of us on that airplane reacted to something different. The pilot reacted to his training; the person in the co-pilot seat to his fear of dying; I, to a sense of God’s presence and a gift of faith. All our reactions revealed something significant about us and taught us something about ourselves we might have otherwise never understood. In Acts 28 during Paul’s journey to Rome, the ship on which he was traveling was wrecked on an island during a violent 2 week storm. All the passengers and crew made it safely to the island. Once on shore everyone gathered wood for a fire so they could dry out and warm themselves. Paul just so happened to pick up a pile of sticks that contained a poisonous snake. When he threw the wood into the fire the snake reacted by attaching it self to Paul’s hand. All the people of the island, who had come to help the soggy sojourners, had a very interesting reaction to this scene. They immediately determined that Paul must be some kind of murderer because even though he had escaped the sea, justice was being served by the snake. They expected him to “swell up and die.” Paul’s reaction to this unexpected turn of events is very important and it would have kingdom impact. He didn’t start screaming and flailing; he didn’t start feeling sorry for himself and wonder why it happened. He didn’t curse the snake or the fire or anything else. He simply reacted to God’s grace in faith and “shook it off and suffered no ill effects.”  Can you imagine what could happen in our life if we adopted this same “shake it off” attitude towards the unexpected and difficult?   After a few minutes the onlookers realized that there was something different about Paul. He didn’t swell up and die. They declared, “He must be a God.” This reaction to Paul’s reaction opened up a completely new set of opportunities to Paul. His reaction to this unexpected and frightening event changed the mind of these people. So much so that the people of the island brought all the sick to Paul and he shared the gospel with them and healed their sick. All of us are visited by the unexpected regularly in delightful and difficult ways. Our reactions in our words and deeds impacts all those who watch our life. Will they see the evidence of the one who Jesus called “a murderer from the beginning.” or will others see the Spirit of God in our reactions? Will others see a murderer or God? Others will react to what they see in our life. Just a thought.

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