What happened?

A friend of mine told me yesterday that when she became a Christian many years ago, she believed the Bible like a child and was so happy that she told everyone who would listen. She looks back on that time wistfully, puzzlement furrowing her brow.

What happens to us? Is it that we mature or do we lose something?

The jailor in Philippi got saved one night when his prisoner, a traveling missionary named Paul, gave him the gospel. Acts 16:34 says, "Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God." It reminds me of my roommate in 1974 at Swiss L'Abri, how she was light as a feather the day she believed in Jesus. I wonder what became of her.

Ephesus, there was a happy church in Paul's day. It was still an extraordinary good church years later when John wrote them a letter (Revelation 2)---known for its "labor for Christ's Name," "patience," intolerance of "those who are evil," and "perseverance." My goodness, what more do you want? The Lord wanted more: "You have lost your first love. Repent."

Come to think of it, I wouldn't want a marriage like that myself---righteous acts running on well-greased rails of momentum but without the romance.

"What has become of the blessing you felt?" Paul asked the Galatians (4:15)---as if the first-love feeling should last for a lifetime, and not mutate into some stolid gravitas. I could almost sadly acquiesce, except for one thing. In the cell where the jailor got saved, picture two missionaries in leg irons, seasoned old missionaries, not newly minted and callow:

"About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them . . ." (Acts 16:25).

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