By Brian Foreman

One of the things I enjoy about General Assembly is watching people catch up with friends, classmates and family across three days of workshops, worship, business meetings and parties. It happens quickly across the hotel lobby. Suddenly someone jumps to their feet to embrace a friend. Suddenly your conversation gets interrupted when you get an unexpected bearhug from your blind side. You find yourself making new friends whom you feel like you’ve known for years.

I recently heard the passage in Acts chapter 9, described as a series of “suddenlys.” While I love the suddenlys at General Assembly, the ones in Acts 9 are more precarious, daunting and terrifying.

Suddenly, a light flashes along the road. A voice asks Saul hard questions. His vision is gone. He was led by the hand. Ananias gets roused in a dream. Saul’s sight is restored and he is baptized. Suddenly, Saul is proclaiming “Jesus is the Son of God.”

The last few years with the “new normal” emerging from Covid, times have felt like a series of suddenlys. Suddenly, a new virus is in the news. The world shuts down. There is death at the hands of a virus, at the hands of police and at the hands of seditious protestors. Suddenly, friendships and relationships are fractured over masks and politics.

Suddenly, suddenly, suddenly. And then suddenly, we move on to try to create a new normal, and the two worst years begin to feel like a fever dream.

Perhaps we should remember that among the suddenlys of Acts 9, there is also quiet:

“For three days he [Saul] was without sight and neither ate nor drank” (v9).  For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus (v19). Even the end of his time in Jerusalem is described by saying “after some time had passed… (23:1)”

Friends, the suddenlys are easy to see but the circumstances that made them possible took less time and get less recognition. Ananias was a faithful man who set aside his fear to do as God asked. The request came suddenly; the condition of his heart came through years of faithfulness. Saul stayed with the disciples who prayed, taught and protected him. The conditions for their actions resulted from times of unrecognized faithfulness.

Remember: The suddenlys of life like the joyous ones of seeing a friend after way too long happen because of the time that has been invested in the friendship. Your faithfulness allows for your own suddenly when God spurs you to action. May you never take the day for granted, nor be unprepared for a suddenly to come your way.

Brian Foreman serves as Coordinator of Congregational Ministries for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.