A Stone's Throw

In Acts 14:8-20, we read about Paul and Barnabas in Lystra. They went there preaching the Gospel and after healing a man lame from birth, they had to beg the crowds not to worship them as gods. 

Nonetheless, some Jewish agitators came from Antioch and Liconium, and were able to turn the crowds against them,who then stoned Paul, leaving him for dead. 

Paul was not, in fact, dead but he apparently had come very close - perhaps one more stone's throw away.  Some scholars think that his debilitating "thorn in the flesh" (2 Cor 12:7) resulted from this stoning. Perhaps the last stone cast was the final blow causing it. 

What we do know is that Paul was serving God and everything was going so well when it went terribly wrong. But it wasn't the end of the story.   Paul was injured but not undone. What appeared to be his end was just a painful pause. 

Paul and Barnabas left Lystra and traveled to Derbe, where we read in the rest of chapter 14, "they won a great number of disciples."  From there they went from city to city encouraging the church. 

You may be a stone's throw away from giving up - one more loss, one more rejection, one more failure and you're ready to give up and give in. But, as long as you've got breath in you, it's not over. You may be a stone's throw away from receiving a blessing no one would have thought possible. 

The stones thrown may become the path that directs you to the success God has in mind for you. As Paul would later write, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" (Gal 6:9).

Jus' Sayn.