Today’s reading is Acts 15:1-16:40.

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25).

And here I am afraid or ashamed to sing and pray in front of people brought up in the Bible belt. There is no embarrassment, no shame, no fear. Just complete and total trust in the Lord. And that led to a new brother in Christ. I wonder what might happen if I refused to be ashamed and therefore sang hymns to God and even prayed where people could hear me. I’m not saying that I try to barge into people’s lives and be an annoyance with my spirituality. I’m definitely not suggesting I should take a “look how spiritual I am” approach. In fact, I don’t even think this was a calculated attempt at evangelism. It was just what they needed to do at the time and they didn’t have a problem with letting others overhear. If I could drop my guard and quit worrying about what people think of me, I might actually let something spiritual slip in front of someone who ends up wanting to respond to the Lord too.

As a friend of mine says, “It’s really none of my business what people think of me.” If they think I’m weird for praising the Lord, so be it. But what if they think, “Man, I wish I had what he has”?

Guess I better tune up my voice, I feel a song coming on.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS: What struck you in today’s reading?