Just Showing Up

Have you ever found yourself listening to someone talk on and on, and you just couldn’t keep your eyes open?

This happened to a young man named Eutychus in Acts 20. Paul had a one-night layover in Troas and had much to say to the disciples, so he was talking past midnight. The Bible says Eutychus was sitting in a window and listening. If he was anything like me, I can just imagine how he got there: Maybe he started in the front row, and eventually moved to stand in the back after a bathroom break. Finally he needed some fresh air so he sat in an open window. No matter what he did, however, he could not fight off sleep.

Once, when I couldn’t fight off sleep in school, I ended up with my head on the desk while unknowingly creating a sizable drool puddle until a hypnic jerk reminded me I wasn’t actually sky surfing over a small south pacific island; this all took place to the great delight of my classmates. Eutychus, on the other hand, didn’t have a nice desktop to get cozy on, but tumbled out of a three-story window. Imagine his confusion upon waking up mid flight—a confusion that didn’t last long because milliseconds later, he hit the ground and died.

Of course the story had a satisfying conclusion: Paul went down and raised the young man from the dead. It has always seemed funny to me that Eutychus stayed there until the morning to finish listening to Paul before going home. Now that’s commitment.

I discover some lessons in the middle of this amusing story; Eutychus, who was possibly younger than most others in the room, is a person who we can learn from:

I love that he was trying hard to keep up with everyone else, even though it was a struggle for him to do so.

I love that he didn’t give up and go home even even though he was radically tired.

I love that he showed up.

It reminds me of my favorite Woody Allen quote: “90 percent of life is just showing up”. Sometimes the people who see good things happen are the ones who are simply faithful to stick to something, no matter how inconvenient that something might be.

When have you just wanted to go home?

When have you felt like you just couldn’t keep up?

When were you ready to throw in the towel?

The thing about Eutychus is that if he had just said, “I’m wiped out tonight, I think I’m staying home” he would not have been a part of this historical incident, he wouldn’t have been the only person Paul raised from the dead, and he never would have made it into Scripture.

Eutychus, whose name means “fortunate” or “lucky”, sure lived up to his name that night. But it wouldn’t have happened had he not been getting after it. Perhaps if we don’t take the easy road but instead make ourselves show up and stick with it, people will consider us strangely fortunate, too.