Have you met Lydia today?

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C
 
Acts 16:9-15                                                     
Psalm 67                        
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5                                             
John 14:23-29                or         John 5:1-9


We are given a valuable reminder in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles that the spreading of the Gospel comes down to one-on-one interaction, face-to-face with another person.  We can’t set our expectations too high, and we need to realize that even mass communications aren’t always as good as one person sharing God’s intended love with another person, one person at a time.
 
We read in Acts that Paul gets a vision about a man from Macedonia who pleaded with Paul to come there to help.  Paul was convinced that God had called him to proclaim the good news to these people, so he set out on a journey with some others to get there.
 
They traveled a number of days from Troas to Samothrace to Neapolis to Philippi.  After several days, on a Sabbath day, he went down to the river to pray.  There, he met a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a dealer in special fabric.  The text records that she opened her heart to listen to Paul, and was then baptized into God’s family.
 
Paul traveled many miles that brought him into a conversation with one person, who listened to what he had to say, and it changed her life. 
 
How often we have been sent to some unknown place, or given some task or goal to achieve, only to find out that the important part of the journey turned out to be the people we met along the way, and not the achievement of the original objective. 
 
Mankind often measures success by what has been achieved, and how well it was achieved, and how fast it was achieved.  But God gives us projects, and goals, and missions because they bring us into contact with other people, often in one-on-one encounters, hoping that we all grow in love from the experience.  The task or goal is actually the means, not the ends, and what we usually think of as the means is really the ends.  God once again turns our thinking upside down.
 
What is your mission?  Is it big and idealistic, designed to save the world?  Or is your mission to stop off at the food store and bring home some bread and milk?  It really doesn’t matter, does it?  Whatever your task or mission, you will encounter a Lydia somewhere along the way who needs some good news from you.  It may be a smile, a silent blessing, a cup of coffee, a few minutes for someone to listen to them, a helping hand, a flower…

That’s how the Gospel, the good news, is spread – by each person actually living it, moment by moment, in the presence of other people.  That’s what makes it more believable – when someone can see that it works in others.  And, when you live it and use it, it grows in you, too!
 
How about making one or more of these commitments:
 
Today I will be more alert for someone that I can share something good with.

Today I will be more loving toward myself.
 
Today I will be more thankful when someone shares something with me.