For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ All who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?’ Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.
- Acts 9:1-22
I don’t know how you all felt about middle school, but, boy, I had a really hard time with it. When I was in sixth grade, my mom was my homeroom teacher and my language arts teacher. It was pretty awful and I made the most of my misery, bouncing between acting disrespectful in class, clashing with her over who knows what, and feeling embarrassed to even be in the room with her. Seventh grade was marginally better; at least mom wasn’t teaching me, though she was there, all the time. By eighth grade I’d figured out how to coexist with my mom around campus and be only occasionally rude to my teachers, opting for the subtle teenage eye rolls, and dress-code limit pushing. However, my classmates and I were particularly difficult to my mom’s colleague, Mrs. Kucewicz. She taught me math and was easily flummoxed by loud and boisterous eighth graders. Honestly, we were awful to her. She used chapstick regularly and one of the girls took her chapstick when she wasn’t looking, rolled it all the way out, swiped off the lip balm, rolled it back down, then filled the tube with wet sand, and placed it back in her drawer. We waited to see what would happen when she next went to use that chapstick. Like I said, awful. These were not my shining years. And Like Saul, my reputation went with me and it wasn’t a particularly good one.
So four years later when I asked Mrs. Kucewicz’s son, John, to accompany me to a dance (the TWIRP dance- “The woman is requested to pay”) in the last semester senior year, she had understandably low expectations. But somehow, my attitude towards teachers, my mom, and other parents had seriously changed. Somewhere during the four years of high school, I had grown up a bit and found healthier ways to channel the frustration and the fears of youth. I had indeed changed. And John and I had a great time. And his mother, not unlike the people in Damascus, who upon hearing Saul preach that Jesus was the Son of God, did a double take. Wasn’t Saul one who tormented those who proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God, and now he is doing exactly that? Such a change can be hard to believe. Likewise, it was hard to believe when my mom told me how wonderful it was to hear her colleague, Mrs. Kucewicz, saying what a lovely lady I’d become. I like to think Mrs. Kucewicz was slightly confounded by my changed person. I think it made me happy, and I know it made my mom happy. When I read about Saul’s conversion in Acts, it’s the possibility that we can all change that I take with me. Change or conversion rarely happens as Saul’s did, as an epiphany. But personal change is possible. May we all take that into our day.
Musical Reflection - The Change in Me - Casting Crowns
