Grant Batchelder
Acts 28:17–31
Dear Friends,
I admire Paul. I also know I’m not him.
At the end of Acts, Paul is under house arrest, still welcoming visitors, still teaching, still speaking boldly about the kingdom of God. Some people listen. Some don’t. And when they walk away, Paul doesn’t chase them. He simply quotes Isaiah: you will listen but never understand; your heart has grown dull.
I know what it feels like watching people turn away. But for me, the hardest part hasn’t been strangers or critics. It’s been people I once looked up to. People who helped shape my faith. Who taught me to love scripture, seek justice, walk humbly, and follow Christ. People who once stood for the very values I still hold.
Now, some of those same people resist the conversations they used to invite. They’ve turned from justice. They excuse cruelty. They hold up systems of oppression and call it faithfulness. And I’ve stopped trying to reach them.
I still stand on the foundation they helped build in me, but I’m building without them now. I can’t pretend they haven’t changed. I can’t keep hoping they’ll listen. I’ve walked away from the conversation, out of grief more than anger. And sometimes, that grief feels like failure.
But Paul didn’t measure his faithfulness by who stayed. He just kept going. He spoke when he could. He welcomed who showed up. He endured prison after prison, and multiple arrests. He was executed in the end, partially for spreading Christ’s message to the Gentiles… us, and even that didn’t stop the message.
He preached boldly and without hindrance.
I want to be like Paul, who in turn wanted to be like Christ.
This reading reminds me of what we need to work toward. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s the only way forward. The only way to live with integrity in a time of hypocrisy. The only way to free ourselves from crippling doubt and fear in the face of injustice and silence.
Who taught you to speak truth, and what will you do when they no longer live by it?
What would it take for you to keep going, even when the people you trusted no longer do?
Blessings,
—Grant
