On my way, literally on a train cross country, to college, I made discoveries that made me realize that the place I was traveling to could not possibly be right.  With no reason to doubt the advice that sparked the decision to be formally educated, I journeyed on.  The experience turned out to be beneficial even though every class proved to be more evidence that time and place do not have to be right for truly monumental things to happen.

Saul of Tarsus was a guy who was convinced that he was doing the right thing, and that “he had arrived” at the destination chosen for him by God.  I can imagine his surprise when he left Jesus of Nazareth, and when the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth met him in their places of gathering. Paul was always out of place and out of time until he landed in prison in Rome facing execution. 

The man we know as Paul the apostle was first zealous rabbi, then humbled supplicant to Jesus, then teacher of the Way, then missionary to the Gentiles, then church-planting pastor (bishop, elder) and until his death, preacher and teacher.

Paul, the Christian gentleman, was welcome almost nowhere, as he journeyed across Asia.  He spent his last years in Rome living in a rented house “preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.” (Acts 28:31, NASB)

I can relate to being out of place almost all the time but being perfectly on time.