Old Dogs And New Tricks

The basis for today's post is Acts 9 in case you want to go read the whole story for yourself.

That old saying that you can't teach an old dog new tricks comes from the idea that the older we get the more set in our ways we become. Being on the plus side of 40 I can tell you there is truth in that. As we get older and gain more experience, we tend to become more and more fixed on a path. In other words, we stick with what we know no matter how "good" or "bad" that may be. Once something or someone has been determined to be a certain way, that's it. We've made our decision and we're sticking with it. Even something as simple as food...if we don't like it then we absolutely don't like it and it isn't going to change. Something I've learned is that is exactly at the moment when we say something isn't possible or that something is an absolute sure thing that God chooses to show up and work miracles!

Paul was chosen by God to carry the bulk of the message of the New Testament. He was the one who led the expansion of Christ's church. He was called by Christ to be the conduit for Jesus' continuing message of love and grace. For a lot of us, that's what we know of Paul or what we think of first even if we already know the whole story. But I think Paul's most significant impact comes not from anything he wrote but for something that happened to him...a remarkable transformation that took place in him because of Jesus.

Act 9 begins with this: 1 - Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples.

Then he is confronted by God: 4 - He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" 5 - "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. 6 - "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."

And after a short period of time, here is what he did next: 19 - Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 - At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

Paul was a principal player in the persecution of Jesus' followers. He had it all going on...you might even say he was a star. Even back then, society had him neatly labeled and categorized. Paul = Religious leader and persecutor of those crazy Jesus people. And just when it seemed like the surest thing God showed up and turned the one they would have been saying could not possibly be turned. To merely cause this transformation to happen would have been a cool enough miracle, right? Instead God took it another step and Paul became the primary author of the New Testament and leader of the early Christian church.

With God nothing is impossible. Without God nothing is possible. It's a recurring theme even today. It is never too late for you. No matter how set in your ways you think you are and no matter how bad you think you've screwed your life up, Jesus' gift to you is an endless stream of love and goodness. His sacrifice is the best eraser you've ever seen run across the white board of your life!

Every day that begins with you still having breath in your lungs means you have another day to allow yourself to be transformed. He makes old things new...He teaches old dogs, like you and like me, new tricks.