Fiction
An ambassador in chains.
Here I am, an ambassador in chains, and as I look through these prison bars and hear the jingle of keys, I know my time on earth is almost done. I sit and wait for death, but as I do, I gain life. I recall my radical transformation, on account of him, the only Son of God.
As a boy, my faith was very important to me. I knew the Scriptures back to front and I tried to live by them as best I could. I had been told a narrative of a young woman and the baby born in a manger, but that was just a fairy tale, wasn't it?
As I grew, I also heard of the man who people said had been sent from God, a man who spoke with authority and healed the sick. A man who the Romans executed by nailing him to a wooden cross. A man who brought the whole Jewish nation into conflict with Rome and the man whose blasphemy died with him, or so I thought.
However, his followers claimed he was alive; and that God had raised him from the dead, which caused a rebellious movement to rage. I stood up for Israel, gathered an army around me and sought a commission to kill or incarcerate any followers of this man, the man they called Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah.
I was on my way to Damascus to stamp out the uprising, when I was hit by a blinding light, a light so powerful I fell to my knees and hid my eyes. When I finally looked up, I could see nothing, I have been rendered blind and, in my darkness, I heard a voice.
"Who's there and what do you want with me?" I asked.
"I am Jesus, whom you persecute," came the reply. "Now, get up, go to the city and tell my friends I have chosen you to be a light and a hope to the Gentiles."
I was terrified, but I did as I was told, and aided by my men I stumbled into the city.
Eventually, a man came, he healed my eyes and listen to my story, from there everything changed. I no longer sought to kill and destroy the followers of Christ, for I was now one of them myself.
I traded tent making and warmongering for persecution of my own, and from shipwreck to shipwreck from prison cell to prison cell, I learned what it meant to lean on God.
I wrote numerous letters to new and growing churches and each time I was trying to work out how to be a better messenger of the gospel, how to share the good news about this man Jesus. The life he lived, and death he died, so that all might know the love of God. I learned to rely on love. I learned that love is tolerant and forgiving, that love did not brag or begrudge or try to score points.
I learned that God's church is like a body, a living entity, with each part not being any more important than the next. That each building brick of stone was alive and breathing and that the church is no longer just about the structures but about the people inside it. It is the people that make the message of hope live and breathe, and therefore, become attractive to others.
I learned we were more than conquerors through him who died for us, and that nothing, not life or death, not light or darkness, not joy or sorrow, nothing. Nothing in heaven or on earth, nothing, could wrench me from the hand of my God, exhibited in and though the love of Christ.
I grew to understand I could call God my father, that Jesus was my brother, that I was a co-heir with him and his kingdom was mine for the taking, if only I am willing to claim it.
I stood in chains before Romans and Jews, all the while knowing Jesus would never leave me, for he had promised, that once I believed in him, I would never walk alone again.
So now, as death approaches, I wait, as an ambassador in chains to greet my Lord. It is with hope in my heart that I wait to be greeted at the gates of heaven. To be embraced, to be welcomed home and to hear those wonderful words "Well done, my good and faithful servant."
I have run the race that was set before me by Christ. I have given all for the sake of the gospel, and now, I will go to glory in confidence and with joy.
Pause for thought:
Can you identify a conversion moment in your life? If so, do you talk about it?
What does it mean for us to be part of the body of Christ?
How might we demonstrate that in our lives?
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