Parked Paul? by Nicky Wilkinson

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If you are feeling as if your writing career has been shunted into a train siding, or that recent attempts to explain your work in progress have not been rewarded by those in a position to: take heart. What appears like being parked might be important preparation down the track.

Recently, I have been studying the later chapters of Acts. It made me quite angry. By chapter 24 Paul, the apostle, author of large amounts of the New Testament, and generally useful church leader finds himself jailed for several years, ultimately he ended his days under house arrest in Rome. Peter and Silas were similarly jailed, but their worship led to a miraculous escape Paul had multiple imprisonments: was he any less a beloved? He stated death or imprisonment would not deter Paul, but they intimidate me. Worst of all, while in prison he was brought before a series of hapless rulers who didn't even give their lives to Jesus. What was God doing with Paul?    

Eventually Paul appealed to Caesar and was sent to Rome which experienced a spiritual revolution. From being the centre of a brutal pagan empire, it became a distributer of Christianity. Paul's influence among the believers, his writings and his presence in the city, contributed to its transformation. Although his life appeared to be harshly pruned, ultimately it was fruitful. Life in prison perhaps was preparation and not wasted time.  A place of intimacy for servant and master where Paul learned how to wait on God and not lose faith.   

For Paul prison was not four grey walls of constraint. He would write sections from the most read book in the world under house arrest. What enabled such mental freedom for productivity? How could Paul respond to God so regardless of where or how he was feeling; prison or palace, listened to or ignored his focus was unerring. In those appalling ancient prisons he knew how to wait on the Lord, confident that "none who wait for you shall be put to shame: they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous”. (Psalm 25v3 ESV) 

Paul, passionate and obedient was not deflected from his mission by outward circumstances or unsympathetic temporal authorities He could strengthen himself anywhere as long as God was with him to fulfil his destiny. He trusted God to make his work fruitful both in what he said and wrote and God did. Even if not to those he appeared before immediately, but we, and countless rulers to paupers down the centuries listened and had our destinies fulfilled too.

Waiting on God when it's quiet, is active, deep, intimate and strengthening when on the surface things appear grey locked and constrained. 

Nicky Wilkinson enjoys writing blogs, book reviews and opinion pieces. She is a grannie of six, and loves to run, play her sax and guitar and paint oil on big canvases. She has lived back in the UK for the past six years after the fun of teaching History in Zimbabwe and raising her kids there and in Prague, Czech Republic.