[13] I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I planned to visit you many times, although I have been prevented from coming until now. I want to harvest some fruit among you, just as I have done among the other Gentiles. [14] I have a responsibility both to Greeks and to those who don't speak Greek, both to the wise and to the foolish.

Romans 1:13-14 CEB

This passage and the next few verses in Romans give us an insight into what motivates Paul...but tucked in there is something else...

Recently I was in a conversation about God's plan for your life...

Paul wanted to visit Rome, planned to, and something happened, it didn't work out.

He doesn't blame God, doesn't turn these events into a question about whether he is living in God's plan or not - this seems to just be life for Paul - we make plans and they don't always work out.

Paul (just go back and read the first few verses of this chapter) is in a bigger story, a calling, and that intersects with stuff that happens in the world, plans that don't work out, losses we hadn't seen coming, other people's choices, all kinds of things.

Paul had a Big C Calling, I have a small c calling, to love God, to love those in my path, an ordinary, everyday calling in a life that intersects with stuff that happens in the world, plans that don't work out, losses I hadn't seen coming, other people's choices, all kinds of things.

And that's OK, because all of us are held in The Big Story of Our God's Redemptive Love.

#letters

#redemptivestrands