Prison Life

In Acts 16, Paul was in Philippi. As usual, he ran afoul of some of the city folk. They were accused of throwing the city into confusion (Acts 16:20) and the magistrates ordered them beaten and imprisoned (Acts 16:22-23). So, of course, Paul and Silas were in that Philippian jail crying out to God to be rescued. Oh ... wait. No. The text says they were praying and "singing hymns of praise to God" (Acts 16:25). I'm not so sure how many of us would have been doing that. Earlier, James, the brother of John, was executed and Peter was arrested to be presented to the people, ostensibly to execute him, too (see Acts 12:2-3). Peter wasn't singing. He was ... sleeping (Acts 12:6). Bound with two chains between two soldiers and more at the front door, Peter ... was sleeping. He was awakened by an angel. The chains fell off, the guards slept, and he walked out.

This doesn't seem like typical prison activity. It doesn't seem like the kinds of things most of us would do. We'd be begging for rescue, not singing hymns or sleeping. It's not that there weren't prayers (Acts 12:5), but the people going through the trials were ... at peace. Like Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego (Dan 3:14-18), they were confident in their God regardless of the outcome. Paul and Silas sang hymns! James said to "Count it all joy" (James 1:2). Paul said to "exult" (Rom 5:3-5).

Maybe we don't get enough practice. (You know ... "Don't pray for patience ... you won't like how it comes about.") Maybe we're not trusting enough. Maybe we don't really believe God is faithful. But Scripture makes promises regarding trials and God's faithfulness. So while we're in the "prison" called "planet Earth" and the world of sin, perhaps we should adopt a more ... biblical approach to "prison life" and sing praises.