Acts 20:17

The apostle Paul is near the end of his third major journey through the Roman world, where he had been establishing and strengthening communities of Jesus followers across modern-day Turkey and Greece. He is now in Miletus, a port city on the western coast of present-day Turkey, and he knows he is heading to Jerusalem — a journey he suspects will end in his arrest. Ephesus was a major city about 30 miles from Miletus where Paul had spent approximately three years building up one of the most significant early churches. Rather than detouring through Ephesus and losing valuable time, Paul sends a message ahead asking the church's elders — its recognized leaders and shepherds — to come meet him at the coast. It is, in effect, a farewell gathering between a founder and the people who will carry on after he is gone.

Lord, thank you for the people you have placed in my life who have helped me grow in ways I couldn't have managed alone. Give me the wisdom and the will to invest in those relationships — to seek out community when I would rather just keep moving. Remind me that faith was never meant to be a solo endeavor. Amen.

Paul had a schedule. He had a mission bearing down on him, a deadline he could feel in his bones, and Jerusalem on the horizon with all its uncertainty. He could have kept moving — and no one would have blamed him. Instead, he stops and sends for people. Not a crowd. Not an audience. The elders — the ones who had led alongside him, the ones who knew him across three years of hard work and harder setbacks. There's something quietly countercultural about this moment. We celebrate the lone visionary, the self-sufficient leader who keeps grinding. But Paul's instinct on his last stretch of road is to gather the people who mattered. Think about the people who have poured into your faith — a pastor who remembered your name during a terrible year, a friend who asked the question no one else was brave enough to ask, someone who showed up when you weren't expecting it. Paul didn't wait for a dramatic occasion. He just sent for people. Who have you been meaning to reach out to — someone in your faith community you've lost touch with, or someone whose investment in your life you've never quite acknowledged? You don't need a farewell speech to justify it. A simple 'I've been thinking about you' might land on someone today exactly when they need it.