Pivotal events, pivotal people

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

-Acts 2:4

Pivotal events in history. When something occurs that changes the direction of a people, a nation, the world. Books upon books have been written about pivotal events. There’s a whole cable channel devoted to history. We study those events in colleges and universities, in elementary and high schools. We are all students of history because we all witness history, and our lives are intertwined with history.

And characters in those stories – pivotal people in pivotal events.

And this is one of reasons why Acts is one of my favorite books of the Bible. It constantly talks about the precise timing and planning of God that created the Christian church and spread its message throughout the world. It gives me comfort to know that no matter how chaotic this world seems to be, God is truly in control.

The verse above is from the pivotal event of the day of Pentecost that launched the Christian church. Read the entire story in Acts. And even further back, explore the beginning of the festival that brought all those people who heard Peter's message to Jerusalem.

Now, are all Christians challenged to stand up and preach in a language we suddenly can speak? Maybe. Maybe not. But I’m certain we can – in some way – be pivotal people in lives that God created.

I will never forget the pivotal people of the day I had a stroke - the colleague who got me some help; the people who transported me to a hospital; the fact that, in 1998 at a small hospital in a small town, there happened to be a neurologist capable of using tissue plasminogen activator for the "Lazarus effect."

You can be a pivotal person in the life of a stroke victim by simply calling 911 and getting some help. Be willing and stand ready to be that pivotal person if that time comes.