Observation: This text is right before the reading many will hear in church on Sunday, about Paul's missionary journeys through what is now Turkey and Greece. Paul meets Timothy (my namesake), a young Christian of mixed ethnicity, whose mother is Jewish and father is Greek. As Paul and Timothy start out their journey, we see a mysterious phrase that shows up a couple of times in Acts: there are certain towns where Paul and Timothy intend to go, but the Holy Spirit forbids them. Why? we don't know. What exactly did that look and feel like? We don't know. But God seems to clearly tell these missionaries not to go there.
Application: I'm amazed at how in tune with the Holy Spirit Paul and Timothy seem. In my experience, Christians are not as willing or able to consult the Holy Spirit about whether ideas we have are the right thing, for the right time, empowered by the right gifts. We assume that anything and everything we can do to give glory to God is right, and should happen right now. Then we get frustrated when it doesn't work, or it works once and never works again, or even works for years and years then becomes less effective. Often when this happens, we take our frustration out on people: the volunteers who didn't volunteer, the community that didn't show up, or let's not forget the church's favorite punching bag, youth sports. It must be someone's fault that our idea didn't work. But rarely does it occur to us that that someone may be God.
I believe that God speaks to us all the time, if we listen. Maybe not through resounding words from a mountaintop, but through the people and gifts God drops into our hands. Too often we plan and dream first, then wring our hands because God hasn't given us the right people or budget for the plans we have. Maybe that's putting the cart before the horse. Maybe we should ask God what to do with the resources, the talents, the people we already have. What are we already good at? How can that serve God's mission among us?
Sometimes God puts the brakes on a project we would otherwise be excited to do. If God did that for Paul and Timothy, one of the most gifted apostle/pastor duos in history, you bet God will occasionally do that to us. But just because God is pumping the brakes doesn't mean your whole journey is over. Maybe it's just an intersection, and you're being asked to look forward, left, and right to see what road God really wants you to take.
Prayer: God, forbid. Forbid me sometimes, and let me get used to it. Discipline my ears and my heart, to see your rejection of some of what I try to do, not as a rejection of me or my ministry, but as gentle guidance to do the right thing at the right time with the right gifts, and for the right reasons. Amen.
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