he finally got to pursue his destiny

When the church at Jerusalem heard what had happened, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw this evidence of God’s blessing, he was filled with joy, and he encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord. Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. And many people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went on to Tarsus to look for Saul. When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people. (Acts 11:22-26)

Saul of Tarsus had his whole world turned upside down. He was a big man in the Jewish faith. He was kind of a top cop. It was his job to go and get the Jews who had converted to Christianity and had left Jerusalem and bring them back for trial. I would imagine that even his own people were half afraid of him. the Christians surely were.

Then Jesus appeared to him and he became a Christian. When he started trying to preach the gospel of Jesus, it was just too much. His people sent him back home to Tarsus. He just needed some seasoning and some waiting time.

Now it has been a few  years and the church is growing. Barnabas, a leader in the church, is trying to deal with all the new Christians. There were just too many of them for him to teach by himself.

But there was one man that he knew would up to the task: Saul. He had been sitting around  becoming steeped in the new law of love, learning patience, discretion, tact, love itself. Now he needed to teach.

Barnabas came to Tarsus to get Saul. He brought him back and they taught a full year, it says, teaching large crowds of people.

He finally got to pursue his destiny.

For several years he had sat in Tarsus just waiting, wondering why, studying, thinking, waiting.

Now the time had come. And Saul was on his way to becoming Paul, the great apostle.