After finding common ground with the crowd, Paul begins to share his story. He tells them about the moment everything changed for him on the road to Damascus. As Paul traveled, a bright light from Heaven suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” When Paul asked who was speaking, the answer came back: “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.”
In that moment, Paul realized everything he thought he understood was wrong. The very one he had been opposing was actually the Lord. His life changed direction because he encountered Jesus. Instead of arguing with the crowd or trying to prove a point, Paul simply shared what had happened to him.
My story looks different from Paul’s, but it still centers on a moment of decision. I was raised in the church and grew up with a foundation of knowing the Lord. I believed in Jesus, but growing up, my faith was something I mostly kept to myself. When I got to college, things changed. Without the support of my family around me, I had to ask the question for myself: what do I actually believe? Was I going to live for myself, or was I going to live for Jesus? At some point, every person has to wrestle with that question for themselves.
Paul understood that stories like this matter because they point people to Jesus. Every follower of Christ has a story of how God has been at work in their life. It may not involve a bright light on a road like Paul’s did, but God uses our stories to show others who He is and what it looks like to follow Him.