Mundane steps

We must not forget the process we need to endure and learn from to get to our envisioned destination.

Acts 20.7-16

Reference: v.15 The next day we set sail from there and arrived off Kios. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the following day arrived at Miletus. (NIV Bible)

Explore: Have you ever spent long periods of time travelling? The longest plane flight I’ve taken was from Australia to the Netherlands where we were travelling for 28 hours. The longest car trip I’ve taken was within Australia driving from Melbourne to Brisbane for two solid days in an old Holden Gemini with no air-conditioning! This was made to feel even longer as I suffer from motion sickness so could not read or write at any time along the journey.
When we go on holidays we tend to block out the travelling and just focus on our intended destination. However the travel component of the trip is essential for us to experience our aimed location.
When I think of Paul’s missionary trips I tend to focus on all the healings, preachings, and floggings. However this verse reminded me that there was a great deal of travel in between all these locations. Paul had to go through every day situations to fulfil his mission to spread the word about Jesus.

Application: We are certainly living in a very ‘instant’ culture where we want everything NOW. We don’t want to work too hard for our money or fame or acceptance. We tend to focus on the fame that people have in sport, music or film and think that they just got there overnight. We don’t see the training, the auditions and the rejections that they went through to get there. Paul wrote in Romans ‘we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.’ That’s a pretty hefty procedure to get to hope, but we will certainly know hope when we have reached it! Let’s not forget the process we must endure and learn from to get to our envisioned destination. May we not demand instant success in our field but know that we will grow and learn so much more about ourselves and about God as we go through the process towards hope.

Prayer: Lord, you promise never to leave us nor forsake us. When we are enduring the steps through the mundane, may we look to you to find our hope. Amen.

Acts