Destination: Unknown

Acts 8:26-40.

It was a story I’d heard a lot growing up.  Sunday School, sermons, devotionals, the works.

All the other apostles were in Jerusalem.  That was the hub of the early church, the happening place to be.  Then an angel shows up and tells Philip to, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza” – desert.

I used to spend so much time on the “arise and go” part (it seemed like such a good missionary motto) that I honestly didn’t pay much attention the rest of the command – until the message at church last week.

But when I really read it and thought about it, I realized…it’s almost unbelievably (and, if you’re me, irritatingly!) vague.

Get up and go, Philip.  Take that desert road towards the south.

That’s all.  No destination.  No task.  No explanation.

I mean, that would be like someone telling me, “Okay, I want you to go down I-5.”  I-5.  That’s great.  What am I supposed to be doing?  Where exactly am I supposed to go?  How will I know when I get to where I’m supposed to be?

Come on, Lord.  Can You be more specific?

But Philip doesn’t do that.

He takes the lonely desert road away from all the activity, all the exciting things God was doing in Jerusalem.  And then this chariot comes along.  It’s an Ethiopian official on his way back from worshipping in Jerusalem.  He just happens to be reading the Scripture as he rides.

Philip – there’s your man!  Go catch that chariot!  (Interesting that God didn’t give Philip the slightest indication of what purpose He had for that journey until the official actually appears.)

Philip catches up to the chariot, and he hears the man reading.  He just happens to be reading a prophecy about Jesus, but he doesn’t understand it.  When Philip asks him about it, the official invites him up into the chariot to explain the prophecy.

Philip explains.

The man believes.

He asks to be baptized.

When they come up from the water, the Lord whisks Philip away to another place, and the official continues on his way, praising God for what He’s done.

The curtain closes on the scene.

It’s an exciting story, isn’t it?  For the last week-and-a-half, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, but I find that I’m not seeing the story the way I used to.  I’m beginning to realize the story is less about obedient Philip who just got up and went, and more about…God.  How He works.

Suppose God’s call is usually less about a destination and more about the road, the journey.  Suppose we don’t need to know where we’ll end up or why we are where we are.  Suppose He knows exactly what He’s doing even though we might see only a little piece of His plan.

Suppose…I’m at where I am today not because I’ve arrived at a destination, but because this is part of a journey He is taking me on.

With Him.