Passing time, marking time
Christine Colliar
May 23, 2026
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Acts 16: 16-34 (NIV-UK)
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.’ 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned round and said to the spirit, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!’ At that moment the spirit left her.
19 When her owners realised that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, ‘These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practise.’
22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, ‘Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!’
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’
31 They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.’ 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptised. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God – he and his whole household.
Beaten, dragged into the city square, thrown in a cell... and still, in the middle of the night, they pray and sing.
Paul and Silas sit in prison with bruised bodies and no idea when things will change. They do not know an earthquake is coming. They do not know the doors will open. They do not know the jailer’s life is about to turn in a completely different direction. They simply choose how they will live through the waiting.
That is what stands out in this story. Waiting is never empty. Little by little, it shapes us. We fill the hours somehow. We replay old fears. We distract ourselves. We grow restless, bitter, exhausted... or we turn again towards God.
Paul and Silas make the prison a place of prayer.
Then everything shifts. The ground shakes. Chains fall loose. A jailer who expected death finds life, and before the night is over, he and his household are baptised.
And what does he do first?
He washes wounds.
He welcomes strangers to his table.
He begins again.
The change becomes visible in ordinary acts of care.
Perhaps that is where all this waiting has been leading. Through questions and uncertainty, through prayer and restarting, through learning again how to trust what God is doing quietly within us.
Because somewhere in the long nights of waiting, hearts begin to change shape. Fear loosens, mercy grows, and hope returns. We become more capable of recognising God already at work amongst us.
So, the questions remain — how are we passing the time, and who are we becoming in it?
Prayer:
Steadfast God,
meet us in the waiting.
Where time feels heavy, sustain us.
Where hope grows tired, lift us.
Where we lose ourselves, call us back.
Teach us to fill our days with what gives life,
to mark our time with prayer, mercy, and praise,
and to recognise your presence
even in the longest night.
Amen
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