All who heard him were amazed and said, "Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?" (Acts 9:21)
They couldn’t believe Saul had changed. He had been speaking out against those preaching the gospel and rounding up disciples and throwing them in jail. Followers of Jesus were afraid of him, and rightly so. But now, seemingly all of a sudden, he is standing in the synagogues in Damascus proclaiming Jesus truly was “the Son of God.”
Change is hard, and hard to believe. In the Rankin/Bass Christmas classic, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” Kris Kringle manages to melt the heart of the mean, old Winter Warlock, but even Winter isn’t sure he can really change. Kris convinces him all you have to do is “put one foot in front of the other.”
I’m not sure it’s that easy. And I’m not sure Jesus is coming to knock us off our horse anytime soon, as was the case with Saul. But I do believe change is possible. I believe we can all become more forgiving, more accepting, more generous, more compassionate. We can let go of bad habits and take on new ones. We can, slowly and over time, become the person God is calling us to be, much like Saul.
No, it’s not easy, but it starts with “putting one foot in front of the other and soon you’ll be walking through that door!”
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