Acts 9:31 - So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

This devotion pairs with this weekend's Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at LHM.org.

In May of 2001, it snowed in Colorado, where I was living at the time. A surprise blizzard dropped five or six inches of fresh, unforecasted powder on the campus of the school I was attending. I was a senior in college, getting ready to graduate, and with finals, graduation requirements, plans piling up, the tasks seemed never ending. But then it all just stopped. Right in the middle of the week, a gift from the heavens above—snow in May. Classes were cancelled, plans upended, scheduled confounded. And we were like kids again: called into something we could neither control nor resist.

Falling snow is a good example of uncontrollability. We have a hard time forecasting it. And when it comes, we can't ever really get a hold on it. Try to store some in the freezer. It stops being snow and turns to ice, instead. And when it's manufactured with power-sucking snow-making machines, it's never quite the same. There's a reason we call it "fake" snow. We can't control it, but when it happens, it grips us, dazzles us, and, in a way, calls us.

So also, for the growth of the church, as reported in the book of Acts. No one would have predicted that a small, Jewish splinter group—who followed a crucified Messiah, whom they believed God had raised from the dead—would grow as it did. Even those on the inside of the movement couldn't control it or forecast it. They were simply called and responded as they were led.

Take Acts 9, for example. This man, Saul, goes from hating Jesus and His followers to loving them, serving alongside them, and becoming the foremost Jewish apostle to the Gentile nations. At first, Saul is on a self-appointed mission to "make it snow." He wants to control his environment. He thinks he's doing it in service to God, but he ended up re-casting God in his own image. But we shouldn't be too hard on him. We may not be hardline, religious nationalists, but don't we find our own ways to manufacture a sense of calling, trying to serve some higher purpose? Saul would learn that nothing else matters if you're serving the wrong person, whether that's yourself or some other mere mortal, because none of us can make it snow. But Saul met the risen Jesus on the way, the Lord, who makes the rain and the snow come down from heaven to water the earth and make it grow (see Isaiah 55:10).

And then there's Ananias and Barnabas, whom we also meet in Acts 9. Ananias is the guy who's just ready for winter to be over. Saul was a walking blizzard—a surprise storm in Ananias' life. And initially, Ananias wants to steer clear of him. But Jesus calls to Ananias, "Go, meet him; he's the one I've chosen" (see Acts 9:15). Later, after Ananias baptized him, the other Christians are suspicious of Saul. So, Jesus calls on Barnabas. Now we hear about Barnabas several times in Acts. First, he's donating money to support the ministry in chapter 4; then he's advocating for Saul in chapter 9, then he's encouraging a multiethnic church in chapter 11, then starting a missionary journey in chapter 13. Each time we see Barnabas, he's adjusting to the intrusions, adapting to the unpredictability, going with the flow. And it's the same with us. We, too, are called into this life with God—uncontrollable, unforecastable, joyful service from one season to the next. And sometimes, like Colorado in May, three seasons in a single week.

WE PRAY: Holy Spirit, empower us to hear Jesus calling and respond in faith and love. Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Speaker of The Lutheran Hour.

Reflection Questions:

1. Read Acts 9:1-31. With whom can you identify—Saul, Ananias, or Barnabas?

2. In which situations are you more likely to try seizing control? Why is that?

3. In this last "season" of life, to what or whom did Jesus call you? Was it what you expected?

Today's Bible Readings: 2 Samuel 6-7    Psalms 30    John 1:29-51

To Download Devotion MP3 to your computer, right click here and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As" or "Download Linked File As"