On November 19, 2010, a 69-year-old woman in Paris found herself in a desperate situation. She had been accidentally locked inside her bathroom when the door’s lock broke. With no window, no phone, and no one else in the apartment, she had no means to call for help.
Alone and trapped, she refused to give up. Quiet by nature, she devised a way to alert her neighbors by repeatedly banging on the water pipes with an iron object. At first, the neighbors assumed she had workers repairing plumbing. They dismissed the noise, thinking little of it. However, as the loud clanging continued day after day especially during the night they grew irritated. It disrupted their sleep, and some were determined to confront the source of the nuisance. Then someone remembered: no one had seen the old woman for some time.
That small realization triggered concern. Neighbors decided to check on her. When firefighters arrived and forced entry into her second-floor apartment, they found her lying weak and exhausted in the bathroom. She had survived twenty days without food, sustained only by hot tap water. Her life was spared, just barely, because someone finally paid attention to her silent cry for help.
Friend, the Bible reminds us that people who are spiritually imprisoned, bound by sin, and held captive by darkness surround us. Like the woman behind that locked door, they are crying out in ways we may not immediately recognize. Too often, we dismiss their cries. However, Jesus calls us to be watchful and compassionate. Just as those neighbors finally noticed something was wrong, we must open our eyes and hearts to the hurting souls around us. Do not ignore the noise. Someone’s salvation may depend on you hearing his or her cry
The apostle Paul recognized the voice calling him, and he obeyed without hesitation. While he was in Troas, the Bible records:
And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul saw the vision, we immediately sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
Acts 16:9-10
Will you be willing to break down the gates of sin’s darkness to bring light to your neighbors? Ask yourself: What is my Macedonia? Am I prepared to respond to the call God is placing on my life?
EN 
RW