Prayer

It is an unlikely success story. A first-century religious leader named Jesus was brutally executed as a criminal in first-century Jerusalem. His death should have ended the movement. He left behind a ragtag group of poorly educated Aramaic-speaking fishermen and craftsmen, men with street smarts who lacked resources, experience, or connections. And yet, tradition insists, this handful of men seeded the religion that would change the world.

Photo by youssef naddam on Unsplash

One hand reaches out to another, eager to touch. It is a gesture of one person helping another.

The improbability of Christianity’s success has always been part of its rhetorical power; how could this small group of misfits have succeeded against such odds? A lengthy intellectual tradition attempts to explain the expansion, rise, and spread of Christianity from its beginnings in Galilee to its ‘conquest’ of the Roman Empire. At least part of the answer, though neglected, is simple: The disciples had help.

An overlooked aspect of the famous Road to Damascus story is its danger. The Apostle Paul’s vision of Christ left him in a problematic situation: newly blind and stranded several miles away from sustenance and shelter. It was only with the assistance of those in his entourage that he made it into the city and avoided an unpleasant death from starvation and dehydration. These helpers are almost invisible in the story but critical to Paul’s success.

The contributions of invisible assistants go much further than their underappreciated but essential roles as local guides and traveling companions. Paul tells us that the letters he wrote to his communities were dictated to others. The name of at least one — Tertius (meaning just “Third”), the co-author of the Letter to the Romans — sounds like a distinctly “slavish” assistant.

On the frequent occasions when Paul found himself confined underground in damp, dark prisons, anonymous assistants loaned to him by wealthier members of his congregations brought him sustenance and provided him with access to the outside world.

A particular human trait we all share is the tendency to take certain things for granted.

You may, for example, be driving a specific car or truck and think nothing of it, but then someone approaches you and says that they love your vehicle. Or, you may live in a particular area and spend little time considering your surroundings, when out of the blue, someone tells you that you are living in a fantastic place. The same thing may happen with many other things, circumstances, and situations. What we deem ordinary or plain may attract someone else’s attention and interest, even their admiration.

The same often holds for those around us who help — unsung heroes who give their time and energy to improve our lives. Some are getting paid, while others are friends or family, but they are all valuable and often underappreciated.

Consider the teacher or waitress, the worker at the coffee shop counter, and others you may never even see, like the one who makes your pastries. Consider offering a prayer to God of thanksgiving for what they do, an offering of gratefulness for all that God does through them for you.

The disciples couldn’t have done what they did without help, and neither can we. Thank you for everything you do, especially for the unnoticed things. Thank you.

 

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Please: pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored” (2 Thess. 3:1)