Three Threads of Paul's Powerful Life

So I started Romans this past week. My guess is that I'll be working my way through it over the next nine to twelve months.

I've ordered a commentary (NT Wright has a "___ For Everyone" series that includes "Romans for Everyone") and of course I've got my own brother's book, Unlocking Romans, still fresh in my head having read it this past winter.

Chapter one has these three threads that I think were key for Paul's life that have formed a framework for me to reflect on my own life over the past couple of days:

1. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you ¹⁰ in my prayers at all times

Paul's life is marked by prayer. Not some lame prayer life that basically consists of praying for my great aunt Marge's sore big toe; not a prayer life that is just about his immediate needs or circumstances.

Aunt Marge's sore toe matters and my immediate needs matter. But if my prayer lift chiefly consists of those things, then it is revealing of my lack of holy imagination.

There are bigger things happening all around me, right around me, and all over the world, that God calls his people to weigh in on through prayer. Big prayer. Small prayer. Prayer that has a vision of God's kingdom and a connectedness to his heart.

Prayer matters. Paul labors in it, exalts in it, gets lost in it, delights in it, works and works and works in it. Do I?

2. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— ¹² that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.

Community. Paul spent his whole life talking about a God who is a relationship and he spends his whole life building communities of people. Paul travels in community. The Scriptures that we have are letters, pouring out encouragement and correction and love. Community is at the heart of God and of the gospel. And it shapes and marks all of Paul's life.

3. I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.

Mission. Paul had a calling, a work to do, and he was passionate about it, knew what it was, and everything else in his life served, participated in, or was done away with in accordance with the mission of communicating the gospel.

I think that if my life was marked by prayer, community, and mission, that would be a life worth living. I have glimpses or pieces of each of these. Some I have more regularly or passionately than others.

But my prayer right now is that these three threads might be woven through my entire life. All of it. And while I'm at it, I'm praying for my family, friends, co-workers and students to have the same things.