when the going gets tough

Sometimes things don't go as we planned.

Sometimes, despite our best intentions, things run off track.

Sometimes it doesn't seem fair and we can feel sorry for ourselves.

I was thinking about those times a little bit today and was reminded of God's goodness and was encouraged by this story:

It's found in Acts 16:16-40

This is long, so I'm going to paraphrase a bit.

Paul and Silas were traveling around teaching the Gospel and they started to be followed by a slave girl who was a fortune-teller. She was yelling about them and this disturbed Paul, so he cast out the demon that was in her. Well, no demon means no fortune-telling, which means no money for her owners.

They were displeased.

To the tune of gathering a mob and attacking Paul and Silas.

Paul and Silas were good men. They were Roman citizens. They had rights.

Their rights were thrown by the wayside.

Paul and Silas were stripped and beaten in the street (with the permission of a judge), then thrown in a Maximum Security jail cell with their legs shackled.

I don't know about you, but I'd be mad.

Heck, I get mad if I don't get the right change from the vending machine.

But not these 2 men.

25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose.

Instead of groaning and complaining and calling for a lawyer, they prayed and praised God.

And the other prisioners heard them.

And the jailer (and his whole family) was saved!

Talk about making lemonade out of lemons.