The Great Interrupter

RIDGE BURNS | Ministry President, CEO, Forest Home Ministries |

God has a way of interrupting our lives. He gives us work to do; we form comfortable routines—and then He comes and interrupts us. That bothers us. Our routines make us feel secure, and we don’t like it when God jars us from our comfort zones.

Paul and Ananias were contemporaries. They both lived during the very early days of the church, but they had conflicting views. God interrupted them both, and neither was the same again. Perhaps looking at the ways God interrupted their lives will make us see His interruptions in our own lives differently.

Their story is in Acts 9, but we first meet Paul—then called Saul—in Acts 8:1. Stephen, a deacon in the church at Jerusalem, had just given his last sermon. It was so rich in the Holy Spirit’s power that he was stoned to death. “Saul”—a rigidly observant Jew—“was there, giving approval to his death.”

“This Christianity will wreck our environment,” Paul’s presence implied; “I approve this man’s death!”

Acts 8:2-3 tells us that godly men buried Stephen’s body, and they “mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church.”

If Saul lived today, he would be looking for people like you. He’d be doing everything he could to interrupt, discourage, and destroy you. 

Nevertheless, the church was expanding. In Damascus, about 120 miles from Jerusalem, God was bringing people—many of them Jews—to know Jesus, and it made Saul angry. He determined to destroy the church in that city. 

Acts 9:1 describes Saul’s fanaticism: “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.” He went to the high priest and obtained a letter permitting him to enter the synagogues to search for Christ-followers worshiping there. If he found any, the letter gave him permission to arrest the believers and take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. He was on a mission, and the church in Damascus knew of the terror he and his band of followers were aiming at them.

Saul, however, developed a problem. God interrupted his plan.

“As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him” (Acts 9:3).

God interrupted Saul with blinding light. He fell to the ground, and Jesus said to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

Called by name

God called him by name. There is nobody who has ever done anything so terrible that God cannot call him by name. No one has ever done anything so horrible that God turns his back on him. God went to Saul—Public Enemy #1—and essentially said, “I know your name. You may be trying to destroy the church, but you can’t escape my personal relationship with you. I want you to know this: you are persecuting me, not the church. I’m working through and in these people; when you’re destroying and imprisoning them, you’re really doing those things to me.”

Never underestimate whom God can use. There is nobody so bad that God can’t interrupt his life and use him.

A young man came to our camp a few weeks ago and told his story in our Victory Circle. He was one tough guy—full of tattoos—but God took hold of him. After meeting Jesus, this man went to a nice church with nice people who drive nice cars—and God called him to be a greeter.

He stood up and told us, “I look like a poster child for Satan, but God called me to be a greeter, and no one would shake my hand!”

God doesn’t look at what we look at. He invades people’s lives, even people that we think He shouldn’t use. That’s the bizarre thing—God seems to pick the wrong people! God picked Saul to take the gospel to the Gentiles. He didn’t pick a nice, quiet, academic pastor; he picked Saul who was zealously persecuting the church!

Unlikely calling

Van Dugen is our food service director. He was sleeping under a bridge 12 years ago, but God invaded his life—and we put him in charge of our food. God has blessed this man. He has become a man of God and has a Godly wife. I listen to him telling people how God has used him. By human standards, he has no business being used by God; he should be under a bridge.

But God invaded his life—and He invades countless unworthy lives.

I talked to a mother of pre-schoolers one day. She told me she used to smuggle drugs from Columbia. She would ingest bags of drugs and expel them when she got through customs. Yet when I talked to her, she looked like a mom; she drove a mini-van. She had been a drug runner?!

Yes—but God interrupted her life.

He interrupts the lives of all those He calls, and He calls people by their names. “Ridge, Ridge…Carol, Carol…Randy, Randy…why are you running away from me?”

Do you feel like God could never use you? You have been anti-everything. You have resisted the changes you’ve sensed you should make. But can you hear your name? Can you hear God calling you?

The Next Step

Meanwhile, God tells Saul what to do next. I love what he says in verse 6: “Get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

That is SO like God. He gives us just enough information for the next step but not enough to get us to the end of the road. That really bothers me; I want to know the ending!

The secret of Christianity is to take just one step of obedience to Jesus at a time. Many are frustrated because they don’t know how their situations will resolve. If you’re in that position, you’re in good company with Public Enemy #1! 

Verse 7 tells us that Saul wasn’t the only one with a problem; the anti-Christian gang that Saul was leading also had a problem. There they were, on a mission to Damascus to kill the Christians, and suddenly their leader was on the ground talking to Jesus. They were speechless! The Bible tells us they heard a sound, but they did not see anyone.

“Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything” (v. 8-9).

The great anti-Christian leader with a drive to make sure the movement didn’t grow was suddenly reduced to being led by the men he had organized. This posse of anti-Christian zealots was reduced to a letter and a handful—a blind leader completely dependent upon them for direction and assistance. In one dramatic moment Saul was taken out, and his men were left powerless and without direction. 

For three days Saul was blind. All he could do was pray. I wonder if about day two his compatriots broached him about their letter from the high priest.

“Hey, Saul—what are we going to do about this letter that says we can arrest anybody who believes in Jesus?”

Do you think, maybe, that letter might have become almost embarrassing to Saul? He had started on this journey intending to kill Christ-followers. Now he was praying to the very God he had opposed. He could arrest himself!

Have you ever had the experience of having something really important to you suddenly become worthless after Jesus came into your life? Suddenly that job, that security, that IRA or retirement plan, that friendship or pastime became pale because all you wanted was to know who He is.

Let me suggest that this change in what we value should be a common experience with those of us who love Jesus. “The things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace”—and, I might add, in the flash of light on the road to Damascus. Maybe some of those things you hold dear aren’t dear when you see them in the light of His glory and grace.

Ananias

The scene shifts. We leave Saul and his men troubled and confused, trying to figure out what to do with their letter of authorization to arrest Christians. Suddenly we see a new person: Ananias.

Ananias was a disciple of Christ in Damascus. I think he was a church-going guy. He had his one-year Bible, and he was up to date in his reading. He listened to Dobson and Swindoll and other Christian teachers every day. He was a great disciple. He knew Jesus well. He spent time praying and meditating, and he spent time thinking about who Jesus is and how he could walk with Jesus in his life. He was great! He was normal. Perhaps he was a leader in the Damascus church. He was aware of what God was doing, and he was excited about the growth and the converts—until God interrupted his life in a different way.

“The Lord called to him in a vision, ‘Ananias!’ ” (verse 10)

The Lord knew his name, too! If you don’t remember anything else about this discussion of Acts 9, remember this: God knows your name! You’re not just an anonymous creature on planet earth. He knows who you are. Whether you’re Saul rebelling against God or you’re Ananias in fellowship with God, He knows your name. There’s a sense in this story of our knowing who God is, and His knowing us.

There’s an intimacy and a love that shows in this exchange between God and Ananias.

“Ananias!” God says.

“Yes, Lord,” he answered. In fact, I’ll suggest what Ananias might have been thinking when he answered God.

“Yes, Lord; how may I help you?” (He obviously recognized God’s voice.) “Is there anything I can do for you today? I would love to serve You. I love to walk with You. I love You. I love to be part of You. What is it? I’ll do anything! I’ll walk forward; I’ll raise my hands. I’ll sell my SUV; I’ll give my money. Whatever it is—that’s how I want to live my life!”

Oh, really?

A man from Tarsus

Verse 11: “The Lord told him, ‘Go to the house of Judas on Strait Street.’ ”

“Oh, yes,” Ananias was thinking; “I know exactly where that is. Of course I’ll go; tell me what to do!”

“For there is a man from Tarsus named Saul—“

“What?? Do you know who this Saul is?!”

“For he is praying—“

“Praying? What do you mean, he is praying? He is preying on Christians, that’s what he’s doing! Do you know who this man is??”

“In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

“Wait a minute—that’s ME!”

Ananias’s response was suddenly fearful and pleading. “Lord,” Ananias answered (verse 13).

Just in case God doesn’t know who Saul is, Ananias explains it to Him: “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem”—just in case You’ve forgotten—“And he has come here with authority from the chief priests [there’s that letter!] to arrest all who call on your name” (verses 13-14)! God, do you know who this is? Do you know what this is about?

Never underestimate whom God can use. None of us can escape the call of God—unless we rebel. Sometimes God’s call is a flash that throws us to our knees—such as Saul had—and sometimes it’s a quiet conviction and our simple surrender.

Never underestimate whom God can use. None of us can escape the call of God—unless we rebel. Sometimes God’s call is a flash that throws us to our knees—such as Saul had—and sometimes it’s a quiet conviction and our simple surrender.

Never underestimate the interrupting call of God on your life. We sit in church; we worship together; we live our lives in our comfortable community, and one day God interrupts our routine and says, “Would you go to Saul and place your hands on him?”

“But you don’t know who he is Lord,” we object. “Do you realize what You’re asking me to do? Do you realize how HARD this is?”

God’s call

There was a family at Forest Home recently. The husband and wife were probably 35 to 40 years old, and they had a ten-year-old and an eight-year-old. I had met them recently at a speaking engagement, and when I heard where God had called them to go, I invited them to Forest Home for a week to rest before they left.

God had called them to Baghdad. BAGHDAD! They are going to raise their kids and live out their marriage in Baghdad ministering to widows who lost their husbands under the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Never underestimate the interrupting call of God on your life. Does anyone want to join this couple? They’re leaving in a couple of months, and I’m sure they would be happy for any of you to join them in Baghdad.

The point is only God can call someone to Baghdad. Only God could orchestrate such a move.

In 1988 I was speaking at a youth conference, and there was a big banner in front of the auditorium proclaiming the participants’ willingness to go wherever God would lead. I asked for all those who were willing to go wherever God called to come forward and put their hands on the banner. I emphasized that people should only come if they were pledging to go where God would take them.

One boy from Hutchinson, Kansas, was among those who came. He was a farm kid from the middle of nowhere—but God called him to a place that might as well have been around the world. He called that boy to Skid Row in Los Angeles. Today he is the leader of a program called “Say Yes!” He works out of a church called Central City Community Church on San Pedro Street in the middle of Skid Row, and he’s ministering to kids who live in boxes and in hotels. He was a farmer; he drove a combine—and today he’s ministering to derelict kids.

Never underestimate the interrupting call of God on your life. Here’s the problem, however—God’s call to you may not, at first, make you very comfortable.

As Ananias said, “Do you know who that is, God? Do you know his reputation? Have you really thought about what you’re asking me to do?”

God gave Ananias a direct answer: “Yes, I know what I’m asking you to do.” His command was one word: “Go” (verse 15). In essence, God was saying to him, “Quit talking about it; quit complaining quit giving me your excuses. Just GO!”

Then God explained His urgency to Ananias. “This man is my chosen instrument—”

Saul? The Number One Enemy? Ananias must have been overwhelmed.

Sometimes the amazing call of God on your life doesn’t make sense to anyone else. Why would God use someone like Saul?

But God knew Saul’s passion. The passion he had to destroy the church would be the same passion he would employ to promote the church.

God continued explaining his call to Ananias: “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (verse 16). It’s not going to be easy for him, God said in essence.

“Then Ananias went to the house and entered it” (verse 17). He placed his hands on Saul. Can you imagine how hard that must have been for him? I wonder if he went down the Street Strait and got to the house of Judas and maybe walked by one time and said to himself, “I can’t go in there!”

He went in, however, in obedience to God, and he placed his hands on Saul. And then he said the most astonishing words: “Brother Saul…” (verse 17). Wow.

“My brother.” With those words he was saying to Saul, “We’re reconciled. I forgive you for your vendetta against the church. I release you from all you have done.”

Put yourself in Ananias’s position. Think of your worst enemy. Or think of Osama Bin Laden. Imagine he has been arrested in your city and brought to your church to stand before the congregation. Imagine that he stands by the pulpit as you watch, and you have been called to come to him in front of the whole church to bless him. Imagine that your son has lost his life because of Bin Laden, but God has asked you to lay hands on him in order to give him sight about who Jesus is. Imagine that God asks you to call Osama, “Brother”. 

Ananias chooses to trust God. “the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (verse 17).

Never underestimate the fact that there is an interrupting call of God on people’s lives. Further, never underestimate the amazing presence of God in difficult times. There was a partnership between God and Ananias reflected in his words to Saul: “the Lord…has sent me so that you may see…” Ananias was not there alone. He was not there without the assurance, the sense of God’s presence with him.

Have you ever had that sense? Perhaps you have issues at work, at home—perhaps you have a junior high-aged child at home—you’re struggling to make things work. Like Ananias undoubtedly said, you can walk through your struggles saying, “God, please be with me. I am toast if You are not with me.”

Never underestimate the amazing presence of God in your most difficult times. Let yourself surrender to His presence which you can sense when you shut out the competing “noise” that distracts you. When we stand in His presence, we can experience His power with us.

Are you facing tough times? Do you have to go to Judas’s house on Strait Street and you’re not sure how you’re going to pull it off? Take a lesson from Ananias: you are not there alone.

A new identity

“Immediately something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized” (verse 18). 

This detail of Saul’s story reminds me of a Jewish woman named Sherry we baptized recently in the lake at Forest Home. I did not realize what baptism means to a Jewish believer. It means severing ties with one’s family and culture and one’s heritage. 

God, however, arranged a remarkable “coincidence”. A pastor and his wife from Jerusalem were at our camp that week. Salim, the pastor, and Sherry connected. He was the only person who could understand what her baptism meant. She was completely broken by what she was experiencing. As she was baptized she wept and said, “I feel as if I’m giving up on my family, but I need Jesus!” Her being baptized was an enormous act of trust in God because it represented losing all that she knew, but God surprised her with the support of another Jewish believer as she took the biggest step of her life.

When she came out of the water, she was aglow.

Saul’s baptism represented an entire break with all that he had known and loved and valued. He was accepting a completely new life—and God arranged for another Jewish believer—Ananias—to help him say good-bye to what he had been and to embrace what God was calling him to be.

“After taking some food, [Saul] regained his strength. [He] spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God” (verse 19). 

What a change! Here’s the problem: people didn’t believe this change could be real. “All those who heard him were astonished and asked, ‘Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?’ Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ” (verse 21-22).

Saul was changed. He went from being Public Enemy #1 to being a Billy Graham overnight. He went from being feared by one group of people to being feared by another. He lost all his friends. What happened to his posse? They didn’t know what to do with him.

Saul, though, is an example of what Jesus does. He changes the rules. The problem many of us have is that we forget that the Holy Spirit changes people. God redeems people, but we don’t trust them.

“Prove that you are a Christian before we let you in,” we say in effect to people.

“After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him…” (verse 23).

The killer had become the killee. The very thing Saul came to do was now being plotted against him by the same people who had recently been his co-conspirators. 

Verse 24: “Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.”

Never underestimate the incredible idea that God can interrupt and use anyone. Never underestimate that God has an incredible call on your life. And never underestimate what God can do through failures.

Never underestimate the incredible idea that God can interrupt and use anyone. Never underestimate that God has an incredible call on your life. And never underestimate what God can do through failures. Think of it; Saul’s first evangelistic effort ended with his being smuggled out of the city, curled up in a basket like a baby, in order to save his life. 

Imagine what Saul must have been thinking: “OK, God, how are you going to use a person like me? Neither the Jews nor the Christians trust me. Of what good am I now?”

If one reads through the New Testament, however, it seems God did have a plan for Saul—who became Paul.

We think God uses “other people”— the successful, visible people. Take great hope from the story of Paul who had to flee town under cover of darkness after his first evangelistic crusade. Take courage from the example of Paul who had to leave his entire community, family, and friends to respond to God’s interruption. Be inspired by the story of Ananias whose quiet life God interrupted in order to bring the light of Jesus to his greatest enemy.

Who are you like? Are you like Saul who is rebelling against God? Or are you like Ananias who is serving God as long as it doesn’t interrupt his routine?

What would happen if you asked God to interrupt you? †

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Ridge Burns is the Ministry President and CEO of Forest Home Ministries in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California. As one of the premiere Christian conference centers in the USA, Forest Home provides life changing events and camping experiences for families, youth, and special groups, ministering to over 60,000 people a year. A graduate of Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL, Ridge holds a Doctor of Ministry degree and is ordained in the Evangelical Free Church of America. Ridge founded the Center for Student Missions, a short-term urban mission agency. He and his wife, RobAnne, have also taught at Scott Theological College in Kenya, East Africa with the Africa Inland Mission. Ridge is the author of three books; Create in Me…A Youth Ministry, The Complete Student Mission Handbook and No Youth Worker Is An Island. Ridge and RobAnne live in Forest Falls, California with their two children – a son, R.W., and a daughter, Barrett. [2005]

—Republished from Proclamation!, September/October, 2005.