In Acts 9, Saul is not on a quest to find Jesus. Instead, he is on a mission to harm the people who do follow Him. And yet, in the middle of Saul’s violence and anger, God shows up and calls him by name. “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” God does not wait for Saul to get it right first. He does not call him when he’s figured everything out. He calls him personally right in the middle of his mess. There is power in being named. It means we are seen, known, and pursued by a God who knows the fullness of who we are: our failures, our mistakes, and our potential.
But the story doesn’t end with just being called. After being called by God, Saul’s life is completely changed. The same man who once breathed out threats will go on to breathe out the Good News. Saul will become Paul not because he worked hard enough to turn things around, but because God’s grace got hold of him. Nobody is beyond redemption. Not Saul. Not us.
Today, the same Jesus who called Saul by name is calling us. In our exhaustion, in our brokenness, even in our resistance, Jesus calls us not because we’re ready, but because He is ready to do something new in us . The question is: will we hear him? Will we trust that no one, including ourselves, is too far gone? And will we dare to believe that God’s grace is still writing stories we never thought possible?