On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

[Written from Roseberry Coffee and Goods, a yummy & great Christian coffee, breakfast, and gift shop in Donnelly, Idaho]

Until recently when I started a business, I have been seeking to find all that God has for me in a period of challenge on the job-front. I have committed to continue my ministries and serve in the areas God wants me to serve in. And yet some days it has seemed that the load of ministry, the job search, and the other things of life are way too much for me to bear. But I have found that there are so many faithful friends who have helped me. God also gives me the ability to accomplish the things I need to do …right on time. I must only keep my eyes fixed on him.

I have found these verses to be such a great reminder of God’s faithfulness in tough times: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to [acknowledge] him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” (‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭3‬:‭5‬-‭8‬)

Paul was running out of time and he was hungry to teach the new believers in Troas the truths about God and Jesus. And so he preached late into the night. There was also a young man who was hungry to learn the truth. Who knows why he sat in a window, maybe there was no other seat in the upstairs room. But he was hungry to hear the truth too. He wanted to know about Jesus.

So these two men, one hungry to teach and the other hungry to hear, met in the most unusual way. As Eutychus listened, he fell asleep and fell to his death. (This was likely because he had worked hard the past week and was listening in his off hours.) Paul ran down, came to his rescue, and raised this man back to life through the power of Jesus.

So what can I learn from this story about the apostle who was so hungry to teach, he taught late into the night and the young man who was so hungry to listen, he listened late into the night? I think it is simply this: I need to be so hungry to teach God’s word it takes me into commitments and positions only God can help me finish. And I need to be so hungry to hear the truth about God, I listen to the point of exhaustion, risking all for the truth of God. And God will cover me with his grace, energy, and ability to do THE UNIMAGINABLE! I just need to be faithful and believe!

Lord, thank you for your truth that sustains me in life. Sometimes the work in the days and weeks ahead seems very daunting and almost impossible. Yet you sustain me for your work! And you show yourself to be a healer of hearts, especially those who HUNGER HARD after you!