LightSample

Light at Midnight

What do you do when everything falls apart? When you’re lying on the ground and the night never seems to end? When everything you believed in is suddenly called into question?

Most people fall silent. Some scream. And very few sing.

Paul and Silas are sitting in the darkest depths of a prison in Philippi. Hours before, they were whipped in front of the entire city. Their backs are torn open. The wounds exposed. Without charges. Without a trial. Afterward, they are thrown into the innermost cell. Their feet are clamped in a wooden block. No doctor. No lawyer. No way out. Only darkness. Cold. And the smell of blood.

It is midnight. The darkest hour. And then something happens that no one expects. Paul and Silas begin to sing. Songs of praise. To God. With burning wounds. In chains. In the dark. The other prisoners listen. They probably think the two are crazy.

Then the earth shakes. The doors spring open. The chains fall off. Every single one. The jailer wakes up with a start. He sees the open doors and draws his sword. He wants to kill himself. Because if prisoners escape, he pays with his life. Then Paul shouts from the darkness: “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

The jailer calls for a light. He runs inside. Falls to his knees, trembling. And asks the one question that will change his entire life: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” That night he comes to faith. He and his entire family.

The light in Paul and Silas shines brightest in this darkest hour. Not after the crisis. But in the middle of it. John writes: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Darkness doesn’t stand a chance against the light of God. Not then. And not today. The question is not whether it is dark around you. The question is: Do you have the courage to shine for Jesus anyway?