'28' - Day 21

One of my favorite “Modern Marvels” is the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Florida. It is the world’s longest bridge with a cable-stayed main span, with a length of 29, 040 feet; exactly 5.5 miles! In the form of useless information, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge contains the 47th tallest "hill" in the state of Florida. Besides being an engineering masterpiece, I think it is a beautiful work of art.

It also serves a function. It crosses Tampa Bay, connecting the St. Petersburg peninsula to the mainland. Prior to the bridge’s existence, to drive from Palmetto, FL to St. Pete would have taken a couple of hours at a distance of over 70 miles. A ferry across the Bay cut that time to about an hour, but the trip now takes only about 15-20 minutes.

In Acts 21, we can see Paul becoming a human bridge. That’s a difficult place to be. There are at least three challenges that he faced as a result of standing in the gap.

First, people walk on bridges. They treat them roughly. Crisics are hard on a human bridge. Some Jewish believers criticized Paul. But what was Paul’s goal? He was trying be a bridge between Jewish and Gentile believers. He succeeded. Secondly, a bridge connects two opposing sides and it must relate to both. There were serious tensions between Jewish and Gentile believers. It was Paul’s desire to bring all believers closer together. He was trying to unite people on opposite ends of the bridge. Finally, people walk aross a bridge one step at a time. People cross cultural bridges slowly. That means progress is often slower than we’d like it to be.

So, here’s the big question: How do different people relate to each other? How do different believers relate to each other? How do rich believers related to poor believers? How do educated believers relate to uneducated believers? How do mature Christians relate to babes in Christ? How do the strong relate to the weak? How do those with new ideas relate to those with old ideas? How do youth relate to old people? HOW CAN WE BECOME BRIDGES?