And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
Saul is on his way to hurt people, with paperwork and permission to do exactly that, when a light knocks him to the ground and a voice asks a question that must have made no sense at first: why are you persecuting me? He'd been persecuting Jesus's followers, not Jesus. The voice draws no distinction between the two.
This is one of the more dramatic reversals in the entire Bible — a man actively working against everything Jesus stood for, mid-mission, confronted directly and by name. Saul, Saul. Not a stranger. Called twice, personally, like someone trying to get through to a person they actually know.
If you've assumed you're too opposed to this, too far in the other direction, too committed to a life that runs against it, this story exists as a specific counterexample. The most zealous opponent in the early church's history became one of its central voices. That's not a small detail to leave out.
If you've assumed you're too opposed or too far gone to ever be reached, Saul's story on that road is worth reading in full.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.