What I've Been Reading

According to the record in Acts, Paul did not in fact instantly set out in a new direction. After his baptism, we are told, he went off to the Arabian Desert where he no doubt spent much time thinking… Most scholars believe that there he was taught directly by the risen Christ what the other apostles learned during the three years of Jesus’ earthly ministry…It was three years before he met the Christians in Jerusalem and started his new ministry in earnest. Perhaps this is part of the key. Instead of rushing to implement immediate changes into a new pattern of life perhaps we should put practical plans on hold for a bit, making time and space to reflect, to internalise new learning, to become renewed inside before we try to change outside. It is clear that, after his conversion and subsequent sojourn in Arabia, Paul’s passion, energy, enthusiasm and sense of purpose never diminished. Maybe we can learn from that.

-Jim McClean, The Conversion of St. Paul.