Present the reading

Use this imaginary conversation to set the scene for the reading.

No one ever knows what each day will hold that might turn their life around. When our life gets between us and God, sometimes God interrupts us to turn us onto a new and completely unknown path. How do our lives get interrupted? Use the conversation below to help people to think about this.

Pillar of the church: I was zealous in my devotion to my church: on the property committee, leader of a group, organiser of the rotas. I attended every service and helped with transport and coffee making. My life was full of the Lord’s work. Maybe I was doing a bit too much but I did intend to give up a few things.

Pause.

God knew better. Now I spend far more time in prayer, and have the opportunity to talk in depth to those who need support. Of course, they have to come to me, since the accident that put me in this wheelchair.

Woman: I walked into the room and saw him, and he looked at me, and my life has never been the same since.

Driver: I’m sure I only took my eyes from the road for a few seconds. But then there was this bump and blood on the bonnet...

New dad: I was the tough guy, letting the other men know I’d rather be out with them than at home with the missus. When she was about to have the baby I didn’t really want to be there, all that mess and emotion and pain and stuff. But I was there and I saw it all and I felt it all and now I know there is nothing more special than the care I can give to this new and precious life.

Office worker: It was just another ordinary working day. I was filing and chatting away, and then the whole tower block shuddered and the world changed.

Saul: I was on my way to arrest the dissidents who followed him when suddenly he was there himself, standing before me, with a tone of voice that was both accusation and forgiveness, pity and love. As blindness struck my eyes, so my mind was opened. Whatever I must suffer, I will proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God.