Acts 20

I'm not going to lie. When my pastor started his talk from Acts 20 to our annual all-staff event to share his heart, I was a little freaked out in the back of my mind. This chapter is about Paul saying farewell forever to those he had part in ministering to and with. I had at least a few brain cycles going that made me think this was a farewell speech of some kind. But of course I knew it wasn't (and it wasn't), but he was leading us to say goodbye, through tears for some, to an important chapter in our church. Things are changing. The winds of change (the Holy Spirit?) have been blowing through for quite sometime. We've known there was a front moving in. But today marked an official eulogy for what we have come to think of as "LifeChurch" culture.

Unless you're really familiar and in tune with it, you won't know what I'm referring to so I won't bother with the details. Instead, I'd like us to think about these kinds of major, life-altering, final, no-turning-back, kind of decisions. Paul knew that hardships lay ahead as we'll read in chapter 21. But he was willing to pay the price. If only he could finish the race that was laid out before him.

I look forward to these new days. But that may prove to be naive. Jerusalem did not represent joy and comfort. It represents trial and even torture. Even so, with each day that passes I feel even more energized and refreshed and motivated and "compelled by the Spirit" to run forward into it.