Saul was on his way to arrest Christians when 'suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.' Not a still small voice. Not a gentle conviction. A blinding, overwhelming encounter with the risen Christ. This is the conversion that changes everything. Saul goes from persecutor to apostle.
I was raised atheist. My parents were intellectuals who viewed religion as psychological crutch for the weak-minded. I carried that arrogance into my twenties. But then my brother got terminal cancer, and he faced death with this peaceful confidence in Jesus that I couldn't explain away. After he died, I found myself reading his Bible. That night, something broke open in me. It wasn't gentle. It was violent. I fell on my face weeping, and I knew I was in the presence of something real.
I converted that night. My parents haven't spoken to me in five years. The intellectual loss was real—I had to let go of my atheist certainty. But the encounter was undeniable. Like Saul, I was blinded by a light I couldn't resist. Unlike Saul, I'm still carrying the scars of family rejection. But I'd rather have the presence of Jesus and be rejected by my parents than have their approval and be separated from God. That's what this light demands.
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