Today’s scripture: Romans 15:22-33 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Jeff Miner):
To fully grasp today’s Scripture, we need to understand Paul’s situation as he wrote the final chapters of his letter to the Romans. Paul was probably writing from the city of Corinth, located in modern day Turkey. In today’s passage, he tells the Christians in Rome that he hopes to visit them soon, then keeps traveling west, eventually sharing the gospel as far away as Spain. But first, Paul says, he must travel in the opposite direction, southeast to Jerusalem to deliver relief money. You see, Christians in Jerusalem were experiencing extreme poverty. So Paul had collected relief aid from the church in Corinth and several other nearby churches.
With this context in mind, two thoughts speak to me from today’s passage. First, Paul’s efforts to collect relief money for the Christians in Jerusalem created a model that we still strive to follow today. At LifeJourney, we routinely send support and volunteers to impoverished sisters and brothers in the Navajo Nation, South Sudan, and Guatemala. It’s cool to trace the lineage of our efforts all the way back to the first Christian churches. Like the early Christians, like Jesus himself, we feel compelled to share generously. It’s part of the DNA of authentic spirituality — always has been. Where the Spirit of Christ is, there will be generosity.
However, I’m also struck by a second thought. In today’s passage, it’s clear that Paul had a dream. Before his career was over, he dreamed of preaching the Gospel in Spain. Remember, in Paul’s time, Spain represented the western edge of the world. In the ancient mind, nothing but water laid west of Spain. In his zeal to tell the world about the risen Christ, Paul could see himself preaching on the edge of the world. But his dream would never come true. Instead, Paul would be arrested after arriving in Jerusalem to deliver the relief aid. From there, he was sent as a prisoner to Rome, held there for quite a while, and eventually beheaded. He never got to Spain. But during those long months in prison in Rome, he wrote several more books of the New Testament that did someday reach Spain and far beyond!
When I was a kid, I too had some dreams. Being immersed in church, I dreamed that someday I would be a traveling evangelist. Like Billy Graham, I was going to travel the world and preach to millions. Being immersed in basketball, I also dreamed that I would become a professional basketball player. I’m not sure how I reconciled these two dreams. Maybe I was going to play basketball in the winter and evangelize during the summer offseason. But neither dream came true. God had other plans.
All this reminds me of a statement Jesus makes in John 3:8, “The wind blows where it chooses…and you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Thought for the day: It’s wonderful to dream. But stay flexible, God may well have different — and even better plans. Go with the flow.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.