My Near-Death Experience and Praying for Those Who Persecute You

Now before you completely freak out on me, my near-death experience was not because someone was persecuting me! You can breathe easy because the two subjects of this post are unrelated. Whew! Sigh. of. relief.

Onto the first subject...

As you saw in my last post, (I am not blog-savvy enough to know how to put in a link so just scroll on down and read my last post if you have not yet) we just bought a new-to-us van. This van comes equipped with two sliding doors, as mini-vans usually do, but one happens to be automatic. There is this tiny, magical button on the inside that you can push that will close the door for you. It really is a wonderful invention for those who know how to use it properly and use common sense. I, unfortunately, am not one of those people.

On Saturday night I went to go get my nephew's car seat out of our van. I unbuckled it from the van seat and realized how heavy it was and that I would not be able to close the sliding door while holding it. Then, a brilliant idea hit me! I could just push that magical button, grab the seat real fast, and make my exit. This idea seemed easier than it actually was. I push the magical button, grab the seat, but realize that the door is coming at me rather fast and furious. Not being a quick-on-my-feet thinker, I am still holding the car seat and begin getting squished by the door. After about 10 seconds (which seemed like a lot longer, believe me) the door finally realized that something was blocking its way so it decided to open again. In that 10 seconds, I felt a combination of emotions. One was definitely embarrassment - I could just see the headline now... "Mother of Two Dies Being Squished by Automatic Van Door," the other was being scared out of my mind. Thankfully, I am still here to tell this crazy story. Lesson learned: I am not faster nor smarter than the sliding door on our van.

Now onto the second subject...

As I said before, I am reading in the book of Acts. Acts 7 is all about Stephen and his death (way more practical and glorious than my near-death experience, mind you!) We see something very interesting right before Stephen dies. He said these words: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" in verse 60. Two verses before and one verse after we see who the ringmaster of the stoning of Stephen was and who Stephen was praying for: Saul.

HELLO! Did you hear me? You remember Saul? The persecutor of Christians who God blinded on the Road to Damascus who became a Jesus-follower and one of the most influential men in early Christianity?! Yeah. Stephen prayed for him before any of that ever happened.

Wow. This makes me rethink why God tells us to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44). We pray for them not only for our sake, to have a heart like God's, but so that those who persecute us will have a Road-to-Damascus experience in their life! And clearly God is powerful enough to change the heart of even the worst persecutor since he has done it before!

God's redemptive plan is so amazing.