Tuesday, July 25, 2006
I'm an early riser in our family, so it's not uncommon for me to be in the bathroom around 6 a.m., alone and the only one awake. I go through my routine very quietly, so one morning when I was half awake, I was startled when I heard the gentle strains of a song. I had never heard this in the bathroom before. I recognized the song - "It's a Small World After All." Well, here I am in this already dazed condition, I couldn't figure out where the music was coming from. Is there a radio on? No radio. An alarm? No. Did somebody leave a music box in here? No music box. I searched high and low. Finally, I found out where it was coming from. Believe it or not, the song was coming from the roll of toilet tissue. Yes, my wife had rigged the tissue with this little device that plays a song every time you roll that thing. You say, "Oh, no." That's nothing. Downstairs in the main bathroom, it plays the "Star Spangled Banner." That music was very unexpected, but it did get my attention, and I have to admit it brightened up a bleary time of day.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Music When You Least Expect it."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 16:22. Paul and Silas have been preaching the Gospel, the town has been incensed over it, and the crowd is attacking them. It's not a good day. The Bible says, "The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet to the stocks. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them."
God sends a very violent and dramatic earthquake that lets Paul and the other prisoners loose, and it ultimately leads to the jailer and his family dramatically turning to Christ. Let's go back to the part about Paul and Silas singing at midnight. You think, "Wait, something's wrong in this picture." They can't move, because they've been flogged, imprisoned, put away, stripped, and they're singing. What's going on here?
I would expect this verse to read, "Paul and Silas were complaining at midnight, or griping or feeling sorry for themselves," but there's not something wrong in this picture. There's something right. It's like that little song in the bathroom. This is music when you least expect it, not at a time of victory or prosperity. It couldn't come from anything around them. It had to come from inside them.
There's another way this midnight concert is like my bathroom concert. It got people's attention. It says the other prisoners were listening. You bet they were! Here's someone facing the same hardships you are, except they're doing it with joy rather than with an attitude. Maybe you're going through one of life's long nights right now, and you've taken a beating. Maybe you've been stripped of things you care about, or you're in one of those prisons that doesn't have walls.
How are you handling it? Are you like all the other prisoners, or is Christ inside of you giving you the grace to sing when you otherwise would sink? See, positiveness and joy are not feelings, they're a choice. Focus on your Lord, as they were with these hymns. Fill up on Christian music. Quote the verses. Quote the promises. Then, secondly, focus on your opportunity.
Paul and Silas probably looked around and said, "Hey, we have a captive audience. There are people watching us now that will see how we respond to this." See, people watch you when you're in the midnight darkness more than any other time. The greatest impact of your life comes at the time of your greatest pain. If you let God take this moment, He will give you the unexplainable grace and joy that will lift you and everyone around you. My musical surprise came early in the morning, not late at night, but I know that no one can ignore your life if it produces music when they least expect it.