Prison Breaks, Mohawks, and Jesus!

Last Sunday, I volunteered in our 5-year-old classroom at church, which means I spent part of my morning discussing Roman military fashion trends with a tiny theologian.

As one does.

The Bible story was Paul and Silas in prison. You know the story from Acts 16. They’re worshipping God in chains at midnight when suddenly—BOOM—an earthquake shakes the prison, the doors fly open, and everyone is freed.

Meanwhile, the kids were coloring a Roman soldier page.

One little boy beside me pointed to the plume on top of the soldier’s helmet and asked, “What color should I make his hair?”

I said, “Oh, that’s not hair. That’s part of the helmet.”

He looked at me with complete confidence and informed me that I was absolutely wrong. “No,” he said. “He used to have hair like that.”

I tried again to explain. “No buddy, that’s the helmet.” Still unconvinced, he searched for the words. Finally his eyes lit up. “A MOHAWK!”

Then he paused. “No... I had a feux hawk.” Honestly? Fair point.

And suddenly I couldn’t stop laughing because through his little 5-year-old lens, the Roman soldier didn’t look intimidating or historical. He looked trendy. Like a guy who probably owned on-trend jeans and energy drinks.

And it made me wonder...Maybe we’ve all stared at Scripture so long that we stop really seeing it. Kids don’t do that.

They notice details. They ask questions. They imagine the story. They put themselves inside it.

Sometimes faith grows stale because we stop approaching Jesus with curiosity, wonder, and expectation.

We know the stories. We know the ending. We know the verses.

But do we still SEE them? Paul and Silas weren’t reading a children’s storybook version of prison. They were beaten, chained, and trapped. Yet somehow they worshipped anyway.

And somewhere between the singing and the shaking earth, God reminded everyone in that prison that chains do not get the final word.

Not fear.
Not suffering.
Not disappointment.
Not exhaustion.
Not your past.
Not the thing that still hasn’t changed yet.

Jesus still breaks people free.

Freedom in Jesus is not always the absence of difficulty. Paul and Silas were still sitting in a prison cell when they started singing. Their circumstances had not changed yet, but the presence of God had already filled the room. That is the beautiful mystery of this verse: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Real freedom begins long before the chains fall off. It begins when fear no longer controls us, shame no longer defines us, and hopelessness no longer has the loudest voice in the room.

Maybe this week you feel stuck in something you cannot immediately fix: stress, disappointment, anxiety, exhaustion, uncertainty. But the Spirit of God still brings freedom right there in the middle of it. Freedom to breathe deeply again. Freedom to trust again. Freedom to worship before the breakthrough comes. Sometimes God shakes the prison doors open suddenly. Sometimes, He changes us slowly while we wait. But His presence always reminds us that we were never meant to live chained to fear..

This Week’s Faith Habit

Put on worship music in a place where you normally feel stressed, frustrated, or discouraged.

Maybe it’s your car during traffic. Your kitchen while making dinner. Your office. Your laundry room. Your morning routine. Instead of filling the silence with worry, fill the space with worship like Paul and Silas did in prison.

Then pause for one minute and ask:
“Jesus, what freedom are You trying to grow in me right here?”

Sometimes worship changes the atmosphere around us.
Sometimes it changes the atmosphere inside us.