A Jolt of JoySample

Paul and Silas had been beaten until they were bruised and bleeding. Their clothes had been violently torn from their bodies and they were sorely in need of medical attention. Paul and Silas, these two great men of God who were traveling the ancient world proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, were thrown into a Roman prison and their feet were locked into stocks. A Roman prison was a place of nearly instant mental illness; it only took a few nights in this fetid, black place to lose one's mind. Set down in the belly of the earth, it was a place that reeked of urine and vomit. Prisoners received only one meal per day that consisted of moldy bread and tepid, dirty water that had already been used for other, unmentionable things. Each time a guard would bring food, he would make sure to kick the prisoner in a place that it would do the most damage and bring the most pain. Roman prisoners would sit in their own excrement day after endless day. And then there were the varmints and insects that continually crawled over the body of a prisoner. Spiders would crawl in and out of the prisoner's nostrils while rats roamed freely across other private areas of the prisoner's unprotected body. At about midnight, when most people give up in despair and sink into depression, Paul and Silas found joy! They discovered it in the putrid smell of prison and in the dank and damp of hopelessness. They discovered joy with their feet bound in purposeless and in the sewage of their own existence. Paul and Silas chose to worship Jesus at the very worst moment of their life. Paul and Silas found joy! Now ... what's your excuse?! As Christians, we have a responsibility ... yes ... a divine duty even ... to meet the very worst that life offers with a joy that is defiant! When you choose to break out into unrestrained worship at the midnight hour of your life, watch out! Heaven may begin to rock the foundations of your life in order to set you free from the circumstances that bind you.