I was walking the harbor of Alexander Troas. It is a small port in Turkey that once guarded the opening to the Dardanelles. Now, it accommodates a group of 30-40 fishing boats. It’s a languishing collection of dilapidated structures. There were a dozen fisherman sorting their nets. The rhythmic sputtering of a boat announced its return from the sea with a melancholy tune. The cafe’s that opened onto the waterfront were like the slumping shoulders of the defeated competitor - sad and lonely. The sea breezy swirled sand in the air spinning the flotsam and jetsam into little pirouettes at our feet. I stood and watched the men. Then I saw the cats waiting eagerly for the ocean scraps. Their eyes are fixed. Their bodies taut and ready to spring.
It is perhaps one of the most important places on the planet. One of history’s hinges swung wide open on this very shore. Paul, the apostle, had been traveling and preaching. He had made two successful trips. Individuals had accepted Christ, the good news had begun to take root, churches had been planted. He felt responsibility for them and wanted to return to encourage them. He had been thwarted and was not able to get back to them. He was frustrated and trying to devise a new strategy.
In a dream, a man beckoned him to come. Leave behind the familiar. The area he had been traveling and working was one of the most Jewish friendly in the empire. The largest Jewish population outside of Israel lived near the southern coast of Turkey (not what they called it). It was the area of Paul’s birth. It was where he had fled when his life was in danger. Now, this ephemeral apparition was calling Paul to leave comfort and the known, to leave behind one of the most diverse areas of the Roman empire for the homogeneous peninsula of the Greeks.
I was standing in the port, walking on the rocks marching out into the sea that Paul walked on as the boarded a ship and turned his attention to the West. He would not be the first Christian in Rome, but he launched the movement that became western Christianity. That choice shaped the destinies of Europe and then the Americas. If he had turned back to the East, Christianity might be centered in India and China. Instead, he went west.
Paul’s eyes were fixed on Jesus. He was ready to act. When God made it clear he sprung into action and he changed the world. When God tells you what to do, do it.