Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown personally to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only kept hearing that “the one who once was persecuting us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” So they glorified God because of me. (Galatians 1:21-24, NABRE)
We like to sit in judgment of them, the people whose pasts have given birth 
to today’s ministries: The convicted drug dealer who now works with others who struggle with addiction. The woman who had abortions who counsels pregnant women not to do what she did. The divorced man who counsels and leads retreats for those whose marriages are in trouble. Seriously? They’re in a position to give advice?
Imagine then, how we would have gossiped and whispered about Paul—you know, the guy who was present at Stephen’s stoning, the one who dragged Christians out of their homes and had them imprisoned, not once, not twice, but over and over again. Now all of a sudden he’s got him some Jesus and we’re supposed to say hallelujah and embrace him?
Well, yes.
And not just Paul, but all who experience conversion moments. Are those moments sincere and lasting? We don’t know. We can’t know. But we do know from personal experience that when we take those first tentative movements away from the past and into a Christ-filled present, it’s easier to stay on the path if we see His encouragement demonstrated through the love of others. We do His work and humble ourselves when that work involves helping others turn away from the dark and toward the light. We go down an entirely different road of destruction when we question the ways in which He uses others.
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