This week I saw and shared a quote that simply said,
"Until God opens the next door, praise Him in the hallway."
Very quickly this quote on my wall got 40 likes, and a couple of comments but I saw it shared on a few other walls from other places, too. So I was curious of how and why things like this go viral and how many likes, shares, and comments the original got this past week.
The original post I could find that seemed to be going around this last week came from the Facebook page of a gospel singer and worship leader named Earnest Pugh. While most of the posts on this public figure's page get a few hundred, maybe even a couple thousand likes, this one quote received close to 40,000 likes and over 100,000 shares including my own. So then I got to thinking, what is it about that quote that resonates so much with us as Christians right now?
When I read this quote I thought that it was so tailor-made for our family right now. I even commented to the fact and tagged a couple of my family members in it; but I was surprised at how many others seemed to feel this hit home for them, as well.
When I was in Europe several years ago (almost ten years, crazy as that seems!) we made a whirlwind trip in about ten days trying to see as much as we could in this little amount of time, which in retrospect, I do not recommend! We toured and spent several days in Scotland, Ireland and England before making our way on down to Italy, spending a few relaxing days along the Cinque Terra Coastline before ending up in Rome. By the time we got to our final destination, home of the oldest street in the world, The Colosseum, and the Vatican we were so tired and broke we could barely think straight. Not to mention it was July and it was hot! As crazy as it sounds, I was just ready to go home. I was worn out from trying to see everything in all of Europe in ten days and I was tempted to just stay in our hotel room, but my sister talked me into going out for the day.
About thirty minutes in I think she was sorry she did.
Nothing was quite like I had imagined it would be when I was pouring over our travel guides back in the states. It was much dirtier than the guides let on that it was, and this time of the year much more crowded too. We couldn't quite get all the way to the Trevi Fountain to take a pic because of all the others who were there trying to do the same thing, we had been warned of the pick pockets posing as Caesar and we seemed to run into them at every turn. And when we got to the Mouth of Truth that I had romanticized in my mind because of the famous scene in the movie, Roman Holiday, instead of being able to walk right up to it like Audrey and Gregory did, there was a line halfway around the block just to see it. And because of these types of things I was pouting, and whiney and hot and tired and not much fun to be with.
Our last stop of the day was the prison where Peter and Paul were imprisoned. And I almost didn't go in. But when I did I was almost immediately humbled and brought to repentance for the way I had been acting that day.
The history books show that Peter and Paul were both imprisoned here just before they were martyred for the cause of Christ. In fact, among those who were beaten, beheaded, flogged and crucified you find their names carved into the stone, listed as prisoners in this incredible record of history that almost brings you to your knees to see it.
And then we read that Peter and Paul were put into the deepest, darkest part of the prison. In the stuff of horror movie making, there was a part of this prison where they put the worst of the worst prisoners that could only be accessed by a hole in the floor that they lowered the prisoners into and then shut tight.
Today, steps have been built so that visitors can go into the depths and actually stand there in this place of torment and suffering where the apostles spent time.
As I stood there in that deep dark hole in the ground where an altar has since been erected it was as if The Holy Spirit came upon me more than I think I had ever felt Him before. It was such a strange thing to experience Him there in this place that was so full of death and suffering. I almost doubted what I was feeling until I read the little plaque above the altar that explained more about Peter and Paul's time there.
In the center of the room near where the altar has been placed there is a drain pipe that history records would flood, filling the already rat infested, dark and dirty place of torment with the added torture of water that would cover and soak everything and everyone in its wake.
But then I read the part that would change my thoughts not just about this place, but about any and every place I could ever find myself in from that day forward.
When this drain pipe would flood, Peter and Paul rejoiced, because they had a place to baptize their converts.
Think about that for just a moment.
In order to have converts to baptize, they had to first be witnessing to the prisoners. Even in this horrible place that was meant to cause them great suffering, they were preaching the changing Grace of Christ to the worst of the worst sinners and criminals in all of Rome! And their hearts were being converted by the transformative power of the Holy Spirit that I still felt alive in that place!
Only in that moment the Holy Spirit was convicting me of my grumbling. Who did I think I was complaining that it was hot and crowded, or that I was tired from my vacation?
The early apostles had so much more that they could have complained about. And yet, not only did they not complain, they praised The Lord even in this pit. And they did so in such a way that it was evident to those around them that they were different, they were changed, their lives were set apart and holy, drawing all men to Christ who was within them.
I am reminded also of Jeremiah 29:11. This is a verse that no doubt many Christians throughout the centuries have clung to as I have, as a life verse to follow and find comfort in. And yet when you look at the context in which this verse is written you realize that it would be another 70 years before God's people would be released from the Babylonian Captivity that they were under when the prophet proclaimed these words to them.
In our modern day western world, particularly in the Bible Belt where we have a comfy pew at the local church that everyone knows has our name on it, its hard to really imagine ourselves in a position where this kind of suffering is even imaginable.
And yet, this quote about hallways resonated with so many of us.
I would argue that it is because we are suffering in the Bible Belt, and in America, but in a strangely new and different way. We do not suffer in the way that our Christian predecessors did where we are enslaved, imprisoned and even martyred for our beliefs by those who oppose Christ, instead our suffering is at our own hands and in our hearts.
We are enslaved to the dogmatism that would allow us to judge and persecute our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ from lofty pedestals of our making. We are imprisoned by our own selfishness that would cause us to grumble and complain at minor discomforts. And we martyr ourselves repeatedly on public display as we claim the cause of Christ, while all the while the sacrifice He truly made is overshadowed by our own self righteousness.
We are all in hallways in some form or another right now.
Hallways, and pits and captivity.
Because, truth be told, Christians in America are suffering. The scary part is, however, no matter what we claim, or what quotes seem to strike a cord, most of us don't even see the half of it.
And we need to be shaken up a bit!
Another story of Paul in prison comes to mind when he was singing hymns while in jail this time with Silas, and a great earthquake shook the prison knocking the chains from their hands, resulting in even more converts, and more baptisms.
(Act 16)
We don't just need to be Praising Him in our hallways, we need to be praying for
earthquakes in our hallways!
A missionary I heard speak a few years ago who was from China said something that really stayed with me. He said that the Chinese Christian converts he met prayed for American suffering and persecution, not because they wish evil upon us out of malice, but because they believe we are too comfortable and take for granted the freedoms we have in Christ that they have fought so hard and continue to fight for.
Don't mishear me. Bad things happen to good Christian people who are trying hard to follow after Christ and still find themselves in the hallways of life.
But today, after careful reflective thought upon that well meaning quote I posted last week, I am now wondering if I need to stop feeling like I am praising in the meantime,
while praying for doors to be opened.
Instead I want to never stop praising Him,
to start seeing the hallways as a mission field all on their own
and to start praying for my own
eyes to be opened!
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