Watching the state of the world these days, it's not difficult to drift into despair. When daily reports of extremist groups like ISIS targeting vulnerable with their campaign of brutality and intimidation become the background static of our lives, it can drown out the positive and affirming. When we see groups like Hezbollah continue their unabated aggression against Israel civilians all while being bolstered by misguided activist groups like the BDS movement, it's easy to lose hope for the world and compassion for those who we just can't understand.
With horrors, travesties, and atrocities mount in a perpetual cycle of misery, it's only natural to harden yourself against the brunt of it. To stop seeing those perpetuating or abiding these outrages as other people and just as a kind of opposing entity that seemingly stands against everything good in this world.
But, that's when we need to step back and think about the example Jesus set to us through the conversion of Paul.
Paul, one of the most famous celebrated of the Apostles did not follow a typical path to service. Before he became an Apostle, Paul was named Saul. And Saul was neither devout, or compassionate. He was a thug. An anti-Christian zealot who was making a career out of persecuting the followers of Jesus.
By his own admission, Saul was a merciless Pharisee. His brand of persecution wasn't just to be a voice in the crowd booing or casting aspersions at Christians. He wasn't a passive voice merely backing up the established powers. He was active, involved in the direct oppression of the early Christians.
There is a pragmatic, calculated bent to Saul's victimization of Christians that sometimes goes unrecognized. For him, outing, humiliating, and arresting Christians wasn't just a passion, it was a path to advancement. A way to build his reputation and standing among his peers. In his own words -
"...how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.” Galatians 1:13–14, NIV
Think about the environment Saul must have lived in. One where hating and victimizing Christians was seen as an overwhelmingly positive goal. Where every time he brought a load of Christians bound before the chief priests, his esteem among his peers grew. His whole worldview was shaped around the idea that Christians were an insidious disease within his society that must be brought to heel. Not unlike the environment the fanatics in control of ISIS and other extremist groups use to brainwash their impressionable recruits.
Yet, all that hatred, all that reinforced indoctrination, meant nothing when faced with the glory of the Lord.
When God intervened in Saul's life, when he struck him blind in the road and gave him a truer sight, the conversion was instantaneous and dramatic. Saul became Paul, and he threw away his past life, his entire world view in an instant. He went from a venomous persecutor of the Church, to one of its most profound and impactful architects.
That is the power of God at work in the hearts of men. The story of Paul's conversion should be a reminder that nobody is beyond the grace of God. That nobody is so consumed with hatred that God cannot touch them.
Yes, it is important that we defend ourselves from the menaces at work in our world. We should not be passive or complacent in the face of evil. At the same time however, we need to remember that these organizations are made of people. That behind the masks and hoods and barbaric displays of hatred, there lies actual humans who are in desperate need of salvation.
And as hard as it is, we need to pray that they will have their own "Road to Damascus” moment in their lives. We need to pray for radical grace to touch the hearts of those involved in extremist activities, to open their eyes and show them the true path to salvation, peace, and harmony. These conflicts can only be solved through the transformational power of Christ.
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