Retrospect

How would I be different if I could look back on today from the end?
What would I call important if all my "nows" were "then"?
From retrospect would every wreck serve purposes for good?
Why does the hand of God in my life so often go misunderstood?

Beaten with rods and fastened with stocks for preaching in Jesus' name.
If Paul and Silas had groaned from their cell, would you have scorned them with blame?
And yet, the only sound from those prison walls echoed song after song after song:
"Praise the Lord for His rescue! No matter how soon or long!"

And then at last the earth itself began to quake and roar;
The prison cell and shackles fell with thunderous force to the floor.
But chains can't bind the heart of man, nor broken cells set free.
For in that moment, the jailer cried out, "Sirs, will your God have mercy on me?"

"Our God is greater than these prison walls;
He conquered the grave, he can shatter these halls.
What's even still greater is hearing His call,
Opening your heart and abandoning it all."

Why do we pray "God lead the way", and then whine and complain when He does?
How quickly we trade His call for our comfort and want to go back to what was!

If only we would learn to pray, "God show me Your hand in it all",
Then prison guards and fellow guilty-charged might turn and hear His call.