Friday, October 01, 2021

Saved by the Earthquake!

 Acts 16:20-34

Paul and Silas are beaten and put in prison for preaching the gospel.  It sounds mostly bad, until the very end when the jailor, who almost committed suicide, was interrupted by Paul's cries to not do it.  They were all saved by the earthquake, which interrupted the night, released the prisoners' chains and caused the jailer to be ministered to by Paul and Silas (and, I imagine, all the prisoners there).

The unsettling of an earthquake, large or small, will grab your attention, cause you pause and usually results in actions which cause you to run from any structure you might be around.  I have been in several earthquakes and I have seen people saved when they ran (far) out of the building.

The metaphor is haunting me:  what was once their comfort zone, in an earthquake, becomes a danger zone.

How much is crisis like that for us?  When it comes, do we hunker down?  Do what we always do?  Hide within the walls of some coping mechanism?  When each could be our death, our danger?  What if we learned to reach outside of our comfort zones when in danger?  Housed inside our "usual" could be fatal or dangerous...and the answers are not there...

The earthquake released them all: Paul, Silas, other prisoners, the jailor and his family.  May we realize how our earthquakes could do the same for us.