Lydia’s curiosity

Lily Cathcart May 22, 2022 0 1

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Acts 16: 9-15 (NRSVA)

9 During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ 10 When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

11 We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. 13 On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. 14 A certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. 15 When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’ And she prevailed upon us.

Women in the Bible don’t get much of a chance to share their voice and viewpoint so this week I have invited Lydia from Acts 16 to write a week of reflections:

So this passage is me, my story as you have read it. I’m glad to start this week by adding a little colour to my short but sweet narrative. I am a woman blessed with a curious mindset. You’ve heard I’m in business but of course I am more than just my business. I have inner workings just as finely spun as the beautiful purple cloth I sell. I am curious by nature and it has served me well. I have succeeded because I was curious enough to try selling, and curious enough to move to where things might sell well.

In my faith too I am curious, I knew God already and so when I heard of this new part of God, expanded, exciting, human and God I wondered: could this be for me? Paul and his brothers and sisters got me thinking and talking, they told me stories of Jesus and his miracles and God did the rest. I don’t claim to have had a grand conversion like Paul himself, no, but God works in me nonetheless, spinning my curiosity into faith.

And so here you find me, open to new things, curious to find out what God has next for me and ready to act on what I hear.

PRAYER:

Dear God of curiosity,

Thank you that you call us to a new and exciting relationship with you

Help us to embrace who we are and who you know we can be

Teach us to hear your voice calling us, wherever we are

Amen