Attention Grabber

And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, "What would this idle babbler wish to say?" Others, "He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,"--because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.  And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?  For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean." (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)   Acts 17:18-21

What struck me this morning was that Paul got the attention of these people.  I wonder how many times I get people’s attention.  Not by standing in front of them and demanding it, but simply by what I say and do through the course of my day.  Paul was saying things that got people to stop and think.

Now, I don’t live in a city of philosophers.  But, the truth is that every city Paul visited was not made up of people who spent all their time sitting around discussing new ideas.  Paul was sensitive to the Lord regarding the nature of each city, and the Holy Spirit laid on Paul’s heart the course of action that would attract attention and bring glory to God. 

Am I willing to let my daily words and actions have that impact?  If I do, my plans and schedules will be interrupted as people stop and take notice – as they want to know answers to their questions about what I say and do.  Am I willing to be disrupted that way?  Am I willing to be noticed?  To stand out?  Not in a prideful way, but in a way that points to the Almighty Creator of the universe!