Verses 16 through 24, which started the reading today, are pretty funny to me.  I read them as i they are almost a classic comedy movie with someone like Chevy Chase in it.  This first is a fortune tell as a source of income to this family, and she is a slave to them apparently.  Her ability is described as a “spirit of divination”, which literally meant ‘a spirit, a Python’, which can actually also be translated into what we call a ‘ventriloquist’.  To me, that’s a little funny...and Luke tells us that she annoys Paul because she keeps drawing attention to he and his ministry group, of which Luke is a member, and so Paul realizes that she actually does have an evil spirit of some sort in her and he just calls this demon our of her when it gets to a point when he doesn’t want to put up with it any longer.  Then this slave girl’s utility to this family is gone...so the family gets mad and gets the leaders of the community to come in and arrest Paul and his posse.  Just classic.

After being arrest, this group gets put in jail and God sets up their rescue, but instead of leaving when the opportunity came, Paul seizes the moment and witnesses to the jailer.  Then Paul even has the presence of mind to realize that he is a Roman citizen and is being held illegally, so he stays in jail to force these leaders to come apologize and let him out - turning out down not only the invitation to leave in the cover of night from God, but turning down an invitation to leave quietly and un-noticed by these leaders...but Paul wanted it to be a more public scene for the release; he wanted to clear the his name and, based on what we know about Paul, to clear the name of the church.  Paul didn’t want the reputational damage that this could potentially impose on the early church.

For me, as am reading this, I am struck by the poise of Paul.  He not only trusts God, but he is able to get a sense as to where God is trying to take him and to leverage his understanding of philosophy, Judaism,  and the law for God’s work.  He had the presence of mind, in the midst of a jail cell, the continue God’s work, and to resist the easy way out when he realized that there was more at stake than his comfort.  That’s awesome.  That’s a great example.  It reminds me to think about this question and prayer, “God your will, not my will, be done - please help me see what that looks like in my life today.”  That’s a great prayer to ask today.