Continued from the previous post
I have gotten about half-way through reading the Acts of the Apostles, and am quite captivated by the stories. Acts is chock-full of miracles and supernatural events. There are plenty of healings, raising people from the dead, (as well as some unfortunate souls who are struck dead), angelic visits, dramatic rescues, Visions, foretellings of things to come, and even an incidence of teleporting. To be honest, the teleporting thing really gives me a renewed appreciation for reading scriptures. I mean, this stuff is as good as any science fiction novel you’ll ever read. I had never heard much about this teleporting story in church growing up, but there it is in Acts chapter eight. Philip is baptizing an Ethiopian Eunuch somewhere along the Gaza stretch; they come up out of the water and Pffffft! Philip disappears, just like that. He is gone, only to find himself re-appearing in an entirely different town thirty miles away. Pretty cool, right? I guess that’s one way to definitely know where God wants you to be. I wonder if his clothes were still wet when he landed in Azotus?
The Holy Spirit is definitely the starring attraction of Acts, giving the early church quite a boost in getting the Word out about Jesus. It must have been an amazing time to be a Christian. But reading this leaves me wondering why there are not more miracles taking place around me now. Why should those early Christians get all the action? Maybe it’s because I am not out spreading the gospel of Jesus full-time, the way those apostles were. I am just a corporate wonk with a lousy management job, which doesn’t necessarily warrant miraculous intervention most of the time. Although it would be cool to be at a Board meeting where everyone breaks out into speaking in various tongues. Most of our employees speak in tongues other than English, anyway: Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic. They sure would be surprised to walk past the Board room and hear excited chatter in their own languages. I’m sure they would think how culturally sensitive the leaders of the company had become, to finally get with the program and learn all their respective languages. Or, maybe a teleportation would take place, where to everyone’s surprise I would disappear in the middle of a gripping strategy presentation, suddenly finding myself in the Harrisburg office, sent by the Holy Spirit to do God’s bidding there.
For whatever reason, we do not see those types of miracles taking place at work too often. But just because I haven’t seen any teleportations lately doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit is not still at work. Maybe I need to pay more attention, and if I did, I might just tune in to the Holy Spirit doing miracles right before my very eyes. Maybe there are dramatic events transpiring all around me, and I simply take them for granted.
Come to think about it…something strange did happen last week.
Last week I had a conference call with two colleagues, to discuss and make final preparations for an important presentation that we had been working on for months. These two gentlemen on the call were also Christians, and we typically started each of our phone call meetings with a prayer, inviting the Holy Spirit to direct our activity. That’s always a good way to start a meeting or a call, if you can remember to do it.
At the appointed time, I dialed the call-in number and punched in the passcode.
“You are the. Second. Caller.” The automated host voice welcomed me. One of my colleagues must have beaten me to the call.
“Hello?” No answer. “Hello? John, is that you?” Silence.
Hmm. Maybe he is distracted, or put me on mute. I waited a few minutes.
“Hello? Anyone there?” Still, nothing.
Eventually I hung up and started over. The next time I connected, the robotic voice said, “You are the. Third. Caller.” Oh good, I thought. We’re all here. But it was only John on the line.
“Hey Brad.” He said. “This is funny, because I thought you were already on the line. It said I was the second caller, but no one else was speaking.”
“Oh, yeah. Me too,” I said. “I tried before, but hung up and started over. Is Dave on the phone yet?” No, Dave hadn’t joined in yet. But there was definitely a third line open on our call.
Dave’s voice then clicked in. “Hello gents! Apparently I am the fourth caller?” He asked, confused. We laughed, Ha ha, it must be a technical glitch. No, there are only three of us, like usual. I doubt if there is a fourth crazy conference call stalker on the other line listening in. Let’s get down to business, shall we?
Dave prayed for us, like usual, inviting the Holy Spirit to guide our discussion and our work. We held our phone meeting and finalized our plans for the big presentation. We were upbeat and uplifted, because we had overcome many discouraging obstacles to get to the point we were at now, and were starting to realize the magnitude of our accomplishment, the hopefulness and excitement of finally conducting the event itself. We finished the discussion, and before we hung up we joked again about that fourth caller.
Then everyone stopped talking for a second before saying goodbye and hanging up.
“Maybe it’s the Holy Spirit?” I asked, half-joking, half serious.
John and Dave chuckled with a good-natured “Oh yeah wouldn’t that be nice” type of response. Then we said our goodbyes to each other and hung up. I drove home, thinking about that mysterious and persistent fourth caller on the line. Why did it show up twice, even after I dialed in again? My mind wandered on to my readings from the book of Acts, miracles, and the Holy Spirit. And then I remembered all the obstacles we had overcome, the coincidences, the way things kind of fell in place towards the end.
Maybe that really was the Holy Spirit on the line after all? Just listening, breathing, supporting, letting us know he was with us? Could that have been a real, full-fledged miracle, right in front of me?
If I would take a moment to stop and look around, I would probably notice that there are miracles happening all around me, all the time. But I am so used to TV and movies and technology and special effects, that everything that happens gets diluted, reduced to rational explanations or replaced with coincidence, glitches or everyday occurrences. And I am in such a hurry to move on to the next thing, that I don’t reflect very much on what happens to me. But the truth is, if we look closely, we will see miracles. Maybe they are more subtle than what you read in Acts, so you may have to pay closer attention. But then again, maybe not. What I do know for sure is that I have experienced quite a few. It’s a miracle I even have this job – a job that I really like, doing something that I am good at, with a company that is surviving the economic downturn quite handily. It’s a miracle that I found a beautiful woman to marry and that we have been together for almost twenty five years, still going strong, still loving, still learning, still looking forward to what’s next in our lives. It’s a miracle that I have two healthy teen-age daughters who are beautiful and smart and growing into young women who are in the process of developing their own journey with Christ. It’s a miracle that I am even writing this, that I can post it up on a Blog, that other people can read it and maybe somehow get some meaning from it for their own lives. Even if it is just one person. It’s a miracle every morning that I can wake up and have the gift of another day, a chance to let the Holy Spirit work through me to do his bidding, wherever, whatever.
No question. This Holy Spirit, whoever he is, is at work in the Acts of me.
And miracles abound.
Image by MorgueFile
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