Reading
One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling…But Paul turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place before the authorities…After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely.
Acts 16:16,18-19,23
Reflection
In Philippi, Paul and Silas were thrown in jail for helping someone. They cast demons out of a slave-girl and her owners had him thrown in prison. Has that ever happened to you? You’ve helped someone and it created more trouble for you. At the end of the day, you get in trouble for doing what you thought was the right thing to do?
I have a confession to make. In third grade, I helped someone cheat on a spelling test in Ms. Finch’s class. Our desks were arranged in pods of four students. As is often the case, strong students were paired with students who were weaker in some areas.
Friday came, and it was time for our Spelling test. My tablemate, we’ll call him “Chip”, nudged me and I tilted my paper ever-so-slightly so that he could see my answers.
In the moment, I thought I was helping him. He wasn’t a strong speller, and I was. But the following week, Ms. Finch pulled “Chip” aside. She noticed he had scored much higher on his spelling test than usual. In fact, he had gotten all of the words correct, except for one—exclamation—which happened to be the same word that I had misspelled. I was caught.
Phone calls to parents ensued. Consequences were meted out. And you can bet that I never allowed someone to copy off my papers again. But the consequences of my “helping” haven’t prevented me from continuing to help others. Quite the opposite.
I learned that giving someone the answers robs them of the skills they need to be developing. That experience underpins my love of teaching and helping others that is part of my character today. But even then, I still get it wrong sometimes.
In his book The Great Omission Dallas Willard writes:
“The sinner is not the one who uses a lot of grace; the saint uses more grace. The saint burns grace like a 747 burns fuel on takeoff. Become the kind of person who routinely does what Jesus did and said. You will consume so much more grace by leading a holy life than you will by sinning, because every holy act you do will have to be upheld by the grace of God…”
When we choose to live in the Kingdom of God, now, we are bound to get it wrong sometimes. But that should never stop us from doing the right thing.
