Listen

They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your entire household.” They spoke the Lord’s word to him and everyone else in his house. Right then, in the middle of the night, the jailer welcomed them and washed their wounds. He and everyone in his household were immediately baptized. He brought them into his home and gave them a meal. He was overjoyed because he and everyone in his household had come to believe in God.

Acts 16:31-34

Think

Sometimes we’re like the apostles: our faith keeps us strong, even in terrible situations. We can pray and sing and proclaim and tell the stories of God’s faithfulness to those who need to hear, even those who seem to outrank us.

And sometimes we’re like the jailer: following instructions, single-minded… until our world is shaken by unexpected holiness, until we are humbled to hear words of faith from people we looked down on — people we weren’t supposed to relate to, whom our culture or our tradition or our job description instruct us to control or ignore. But faith breaks through, breaks down the doors and breaks open the chains that keep us all imprisoned in our old ideas.

Then, like the jailer, we become not their keepers but their servants. We listen to their stories. We tend their wounds, fix them sandwiches, give them the best seats in the house. We welcome them home.

And they welcome us into the family.

Nikki Finkelstein-Blair

Pray

Break open the doors of my heart, God, so I may welcome and serve and listen to all who proclaim you. Make me, too, a faithful witness to what you have done, and a herald of your surprising salvation! Amen.

Go

Listen: God, the Most High, is speaking!

Look: God, the Most High, is working!

Say Yes: God, the Most High, is inviting us to hear, to see, to join in!