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When life gets tough, many of us find it hard to lift our voices in praise. Honestly, during challenging and painful times, praise often feels like the last thing we want to do. It’s easy to let our emotions dictate our response, but as believers, we are called to live differently. We are meant to praise God not only when things are going well, but especially in our most difficult moments. It's during these struggles that our praise can have the greatest impact. The story of Paul and Silas in Acts 16 serves as a powerful testament to this truth. In Acts 16, we see Paul and Silas facing severe consequences after freeing a slave girl from a spirit of divination. If you’ve never read the story, I encourage you to check it out; it’s pretty cool. Instead of receiving gratitude, they were beaten and thrown into the innermost prison, their feet locked in stocks. In that dark place, they had every reason to complain or fall into despair. I’m sure you’ve been there before, in a dark season where you feel stuck and see no way out. Yet, at midnight, they made a bold choice: they began to pray and sing hymns to God. Their decision to worship — a deliberate act of faith — stands in stark contrast to the natural inclination to grumble when faced with hardship. As Christians, we must recognize two essential truths when navigating trials. First, spiritual opposition is a part of our journey. The Christian life isn’t a cruise ship; it’s more like a battleship. Facing challenges comes with the territory, and understanding that we’re in a spiritual battle equips us to withstand those difficulties. Second, trials are not random; they are part of God’s divine plan. Like Paul and Silas, we will encounter obstacles, but these experiences are tailored for our growth and provide an opportunity to glorify God. Through these trials, God teaches us resilience and deepens our faith. When we choose to praise in the midst of adversity, we activate a powerful force. The praise of Paul and Silas was the sound of hope in the den of despair, leading to an incredible miracle—an earthquake that opened doors and unfastened their chains. Their worship wasn’t just a way to cope; it became a catalyst for God’s power to break through. This profound act of faith not only liberated them but also captivated the attention of the jailer, who soon sought salvation, bringing his entire household to faith. I imagine that God and the angels of heaven looked upon these men, amazed that they approached their situation as Job did. Do you remember Job’s words? He said, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” Throughout the Scriptures, we find many instances where people could have easily given up, blamed God for their situation, and abandoned their walk with Jesus. But not Paul and Silas. They followed in the same steps of faith and praised God in the middle of their suffering. How about you? How do you handle the pain of life? How do you deal with unexpected changes in your plans? How do you behave when things go in a completely opposite direction from what you expected? Sign up to get our free daily email of the biggest stories! I wish I could say I’ve never grumbled or complained or had a lousy attitude when I was in a bad place, but I’d be lying. Over and over again, I’ve failed the test and had to repent for my perspective. My feelings are real. Your feelings are real. Life hurts—I get it. But here’s the thing: we haven’t been called to live by our feelings; we’ve been called to live by faith and to learn to praise in the middle of our prison seasons. By God’s grace, we learn to adopt a new perspective—one that humbly admits that we don’t have the right to get sour when God has been so good to us. Let me ask you: has God been good to you? I wonder what would happen if you chose to thank Him and praise Him when it’s the last thing you felt like doing. I’m willing to bet you would find the foundation of your situation changing, just as Paul and Silas experienced their prison walls shaking and soon discovered the freedom that comes from breaking the shackles of negativity. As we reflect on our lives, let’s consider the “prisons” we may be facing. What burdens can we break free from through praise? How can we intentionally offer thanks even when it's challenging? The discipline of praise is not just about enduring tough times; it’s about actively choosing gratitude in the face of adversity. By lifting our voices in worship, we honor God, demonstrate our faith, and hopefully inspire those around us to do the same. In every season, let us remember the power of praise—it can transform our struggles into stepping stones toward deeper faith and new opportunities for witnessing God’s goodness.
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Chase Bitcoin At All-Time Highs? Absolutely YesFor “Hysteria!” actresses Anna Camp and Julie Bowen, horror is harder than comedy. “Horror is really hard actually because there is a fine line you have to walk; you have to make it feel grounded and you’re put in these extreme circumstances: You’re being possessed or pulled through the air, there’s nothing you can do to relate to that,” explained Camp of “Pitch Perfect” fame. “With comedy, you can have a relatable situation and go, ‘I’ve been in situations like that.’ There’s nothing you can compare (horror) to, so you have to use your imagination. I find it harder. Your imagination goes home with you at the end of the day. You’re still thinking crazy thoughts.” Bowen, best known for playing Claire Dunphy on “Modern Family,” agreed. “Comedy’s pretty binary because it’s like either you can make people laugh or you don’t. I can’t watch horror. I’m terrified, terrified! I am the easiest scare in the world, so as far as doing (horror), I want to make it as real as possible. It was hard because I had to be really, really crazy. There were times when I’d get back to my hotel room at 3 a.m., I didn’t want to be alone in my head,” said Bowen, laughing. Camp, Bowen, Royal Oak native Bruce Campbell (“Evil Dead”), showrunner David A. Goodman (“Futurama”), and Ypsilanti native/creator Matthew Scott Kane (“American Horror Story”) were promoting “Hysteria!” at the New York Comic Con in October. The horror series is streaming on Peacock. Set in the fictional Michigan town of Happy Hollow, the first episode of “Hysteria” begins with a popular quarterback’s disappearance and a pentagram is discovered on a garage door. As a result, rumors of the occult and satanic influence run rampant through the town. A trio of outcasts in a heavy metal band called Dethkrunch exploit this by rebranding themselves as a satanic metal band, which leads to them becoming the targets of the town’s witch hunt. “Something on my mind a lot in 2019 was we’re living in this post-factual age with social media. It seemed like decades and decades ago, you could trust the news. Now everything is in question. When lies end up getting disseminated as truth, that starts to warp people’s version of reality. Suddenly, they’re living in a world other people are not. That was going on in the world I was living in and I very quickly connected it to the 1980s satanic panic. It’s not really that different because people were saying Ozzy Osbourne, Jason Voorhees (of ‘Friday the 13th’), and the Smurfs were going to turn your kids into satanists and kill you in your sleep. That didn’t happen. It wasn’t true, but so many people got worked up into such a fervor over it, bad things happened. ... It was smoke without fire,” Kane said. “Disinformation is not new,” Campbell said. “Disinformation will tear a town apart.” Campbell portrays Happy Hollow Police Chief Ben Dandridge. “This guy’s a reasonable cop; he’s a rational person who doesn’t treat the teenagers like they’re idiots. It’s all very refreshing,” he said. “I want to play that guy again. I want cops to be that guy. I’m playing the cop (that) cops need to be. That’s my whole motivation for playing this guy: How would you like cops to be, especially the guy in charge, the chief of police? They’re lucky to have Chief Dandridge.” “It was truly an exciting moment when Bruce signed on,” Goodman said. By the end of the first episode, a supernatural phenomenon happens to Linda Campbell, played by Bowen. “Linda seems like one thing, then you realize she’s bananas. She’s either bananas or she’s possessed. Either way, it’s a complicated thing to play,” Bowen said. “With Julie, you can have your cake and eat it too,” Kane said. “She’s this fun, quirky mom. ... As the episode goes on, she’s pulled deeper into this thing and crazy stuff starts happening. That final act of the first episode was my favorite moment with her because this announced that this is not Claire Dunphy. We’re not doing that again; we’re pushing her as a performer. “Julie was so excited about doing stunts. She told us on many occasions she’s very sturdy and can take it. The same goes for Bruce and for Anna. We didn’t ask anyone to give us a flavor of the thing they did before. We cast people we loved so much (in their famous projects) that we wanted to give them the opportunity to do the exact opposite.” Added Bowen: “I got this script and was like, ‘Oh great. She’s a mom. How fun.’ I love moms. I’m a mom, but I felt this was not worth flying out of town to Georgia and being away from my kids. Then I got to the end of the pilot and was like, ‘She’s crazy!’ Is she possessed? There’s a lot more questions. It’s fun to just stretch again and do things I haven’t done in a while, which I found really exciting.” Kane said he felt lucky Bowen signed on at the beginning. “She was the first adult actor to sign on. That gave us such credibility to have a two-time Emmy-winning actor leading this show. Suddenly, it goes from this script from a relatively unknown writer into the new Julie Bowen show,” he said. It was the quality of the writing that attracted Camp, Bowen and Campbell to “Hysteria!” “I loved the script; it was incredibly well-written. It was immersed in the time period. It was such a good coming-of-age story, too — the feeling of being in high school again, being in the 1980s,” Camp said. “I talked to Matt who said my character (Tracy) was incredibly pivotal to the series and we’ll learn about why she is the way she is. So I was like, ‘I’d love to do this!’” For Campbell, the writing is everything. “A lot of times, I’ll get a script that could make the words interchangeable with every other character because the writing is very bland and just doesn’t have the detail you need. This was different. Every character was pretty distinct and pretty well-drawn,” he said. “It’s quality. It’s not a (expletive) show. It’s a real show that’s playing around with interesting themes. A lot of it is still relevant to this day.” “Hysteria!” has other Michigan connections, including University of Michigan alumnus Jonathan Goldstein (“Spider-Man: Homecoming”) and Dondero High School alumnus Jordan Vogt-Roberts (“Kong: Skull Island”), who both serve as executive producers. Kane explained why he set “Hysteria!” in Michigan. “You write what you know. I grew up in Ypsilanti, so that had a lot to do with it. More importantly, when you’re in a small town in the Midwest — somewhere like Michigan — these things don’t ever happen and word spreads fast and paranoia spreads quickly and (everything’s) blown out of proportion and takes up a lot of people’s minds,” he said. “Whether or not something is real doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if there are people willing to believe it does and willing it into the world. What does it matter if it’s objectively real or living rent-free in someone’s head?”
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Kahramaa provides employment opportunities for Qatari, resident graduatesStock market today: Asian shares are mixed after Wall Street slips, led by tech giantsBy JOSH BOAK WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday voiced his support for the dockworkers union before their contract expires next month at Eastern and Gulf Coast ports, saying that any further “automation” of the ports would harm workers. Related Articles National Politics | Will Kamala Harris run for California governor in 2026? The question is already swirling National Politics | Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people National Politics | Trump taps immigration hard-liner Kari Lake as head of Voice of America National Politics | Trump extends unprecedented invites to China’s Xi and other world leaders for his inauguration National Politics | Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump The incoming president posted on social media that he met Harold Daggett, the president of the International Longshoreman’s Association, and Dennis Daggett, the union’s executive vice president. “I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it,” Trump posted. “The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen. Foreign companies have made a fortune in the U.S. by giving them access to our markets. They shouldn’t be looking for every last penny knowing how many families are hurt.” The International Longshoremen’s Association has until Jan. 15 to negotiate a new contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies. At the heart of the dispute is whether ports can install automated gates, cranes and container-moving trucks that could make it faster to unload and load ships. The union argues that automation would lead to fewer jobs, even though higher levels of productivity could do more to boost the salaries of remaining workers. The Maritime Alliance said in a statement that the contract goes beyond ports to “supporting American consumers and giving American businesses access to the global marketplace – from farmers, to manufacturers, to small businesses, and innovative start-ups looking for new markets to sell their products.” “To achieve this, we need modern technology that is proven to improve worker safety, boost port efficiency, increase port capacity, and strengthen our supply chains,” said the alliance, adding that it looks forward to working with Trump. In October, the union representing 45,000 dockworkers went on strike for three days, raising the risk that a prolonged shutdown could push up inflation by making it difficult to unload container ships and export American products overseas. The issue pits an incoming president who won November’s election on the promise of bringing down prices against commitments to support blue-collar workers along with the kinds of advanced technology that drew him support from Silicon Valley elite such as billionaire Elon Musk. Trump sought to portray the dispute as being between U.S. workers and foreign companies, but advanced ports are also key for staying globally competitive. China is opening a $1.3 billion port in Peru that could accommodate ships too large for the Panama Canal. There is a risk that shippers could move to other ports, which could also lead to job losses. Mexico is constructing a port that is highly automated, while Dubai, Singapore and Rotterdam already have more advanced ports. Instead, Trump said that ports and shipping companies should eschew “machinery, which is expensive, and which will constantly have to be replaced.” “For the great privilege of accessing our markets, these foreign companies should hire our incredible American Workers, instead of laying them off, and sending those profits back to foreign countries,” Trump posted. “It is time to put AMERICA FIRST!”