In today’s reading we learn about the martyrdom of Stephen. For the majority of the chapter Stephen spends time reminding the religious leaders of their history. He did not do this because he felt they lacked knowledge, but because he was setting up his main point; that throughout the Israelite’s history, they continuously rejected God regardless of the truth being giving to them on a continuous basis. Their rejection included most of their prophets, many of which prophesied about the coming of the Messiah. In Act 7:52 Stephen says to the religious leaders, Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him. When we blind ourselves to the truth we invite suffering and misdirection in our lives. Sometimes the truth is hard to accept, especially when it is not what we expected. But in the end our expectations matter very little. We must be open to God’s teaching in our lives and be willing to accept truth that sometimes is contrary to what we feel.