Dear Christian: The Apostle Paul Kicked Ass When He Went Through Pain And Persecution — Be Like Paul

The exact time Paul’s captors thought they had him beat, was when God was using him to the maximum effect.

It’s one thing to raze Hell by stealing away one formerly-condemned soul at a time.

But to pen the Verbum Dei so that millions of Christians for Thousands of Years to come could each put a scar across El Diablo’s backside?

That’s what you’d call one serious ‘multiplier effect’.

And if ‘bad things’ hadn’t happened to our hero, Paul’s letters might never have been written.

Yep. Paul’s mightiest work wasn’t preaching at the Areopagus in Athens — as cool as that might have been.

It wasn’t the prayer he prayed after Eutychus fell out of that window during a long sermon (Acts 20). It wasn’t even his training of leaders, or meeting with high-ranking and influential Roman Officials, up to, and including Ceasar.

No. It was what he did in the solitude of a Prison cell, where he had all the time he needed to sit and think and write.

Perspective changes everything. What are YOU going to do with the hardships in your life? Whine, cry, and throw in the towel? Or leverage them to their best effect?

Sometimes our comfort is the thing that really stands in the way of what we really should be doing, and hardship — as unwelcome as it sometimes is — could be the best thing we’ve got going for us.

Suck it up, Skippy. Embrace the mace.

Because, really, God alone knows what’s in store if you cowboy up and rise to the occasion.

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