Monthly Archives: July 2014

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A tried and tested freedom weapon

Storydame isn’t a religious themed blog. There’s nothing wrong with blogs that center on spirituality; this just isn’t one of them. However, few stories shout the StoryDame July freedom theme better than one about two missionaries named Paul and Silas.

Stocks from medieval times. ©iStockphoto/runamock

Stocks from medieval times. ©iStockphoto/runamock

As Paul and Silas are traveling about the world around the Mediterranean in the first century BC, the end up in the Macedonian city of Philippi. There they encounter a woman with a troubling spirit and set her free. The men for whom this woman and her spirit have been a source of income are not pleased. They complain to the magistrates. Paul and Silas are beaten and thrown in jail.

This doesn’t sound like a great day to me. In fact, I would be panicky about being locked up in a foreign country where I have zero connections. I wouldn’t be surprised if I fell into pleading or tears. An ugly curse word might even float to the surface. Yet these two men are praying and singing!

They must have been loud – other prisoners were listening – but loudness couldn’t have caused the earthquake so violent it shook locked doors open and loosed every restrictive band. The jailer, responsible for the prisoners, awoke to see the open doors and was about to end his life when Paul cries out, “We are all still here!”

The event is enough to move the jailer to belief and the magistrates to free the missionaries which Paul and Silas demand they do publicly. When they comply, they ask the powerful duo to leave the city.

The combination of prayer and praise is obviously a mighty weapon. Even so, it can be difficult to follow in their footsteps during the worst days of our lives. If it seems counter intuitive, we can remember Joseph, a favorite son of Jacob. After being sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph was falsely accused by his master’s wife and imprisoned, then forgotten by a fellow prisoner who promised to remember him. But Joseph eventually ended up second in Egypt only to Pharaoh. What his brothers meant for evil, Joseph insisted when he met them later, God meant for good.

Story of a recovering true believer

I never expect to see a story like this. I know they exist. I don’t anticipate them being laid out there, warts and all, for the whole world to see because Christians just don’t do that very often. I would’t have seen this one but for a pastor friend who shared the link on Facebook.

When Mike Anderson starts his story with a bug zapper example and says, “This is my own story of getting transfixed by a pretty light and getting fried in the end,” I know this isn’t going to be a glowing report. Yes, Christians have told stories that aren’t pretty. Corrie ten Boom told of being incarcerated by the Nazis for hiding Jews in The Hiding Place. Gracia Burnham tells of being kidnapped along with her husband as missionaries in the Phillipines in In the Presence of My Enemies. Donald Miller writes of his soul search in Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality. But few (if any) have written from the heights of the trenches of the mega-church experience like Anderson.

My pastor friend and Mike Anderson stand heads above the herd. Anderson has the courage to bare all in the telling of his mega-church experience. My friend has the boldness to admit this type of thing happened even though it isn’t pretty. What do I think? I think refusal to bury the bad under the good makes these two men more like Jesus.