No One Beyond Reach

No One Beyond Reach

When Charles Colson — Nixon's 'hatchet man,' convicted of Watergate-related crimes — came to faith in 1973, much of America was skeptical. Chuck Colson getting religion looked like a political maneuver. But the man who emerged from prison was transformed in ways impossible to fabricate: he founded Prison Fellowship, spent the rest of his life advocating for prison reform and rehabilitation, and brought hope to hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people across the world. Those who had known him before were often the most astounded. His testimony repeated the same refrain: 'I met Jesus on the road, and I have never been the same.' It was the Damascus Road for a different century, in a different kind of prison.

Saul of Tarsus was not a wayward prodigal who had drifted from faith. He was an active, passionate, committed enemy of the church — 'breathing murderous threats' (Acts 9:1) and systematically hunting Christians. He was the last person the early church would have put on its prayer list as a candidate for conversion. Which is exactly why his transformation is such a powerful testimony: if grace can reach Saul, it can reach anyone. If the risen Jesus could stop a persecutor on a road and turn him into the greatest missionary in Christian history, then no one in your life is beyond His reach. The people you have given up on. The family members who seem hardened. The colleague who ridicules faith. God interrupts roads.