Last week a 27 year old Australian woman was found guilty of smuggling 4.1 kg marijuana into Bali last October and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Schapelle Corby emphatically declared all along that she is innocent and that the drugs had to have been planted in her luggage.
This case has had huge media attention in Australasia where 90% of Australians believe she is innocent and national outrage at Indonesia is marginally short of explosive. There are troubling aspects to the case that do give rise to considerable doubt, but the Indonesian judges delivered a well reasoned verdict concluded on points of law that could not be refuted - she had been caught with the drugs in her luggage and could not convincingly prove her innocence.

Indonesian jails are hell-holes and her survival will likely depend on her family providing food for her daily as none is provided. Pictures taken inside Kerobokan jail where she has been held for the past nine months reveal cramped squalid living conditions for the up to five people who sleep, eat and wash in a triangular-shaped cell less than 3×3m in size. Prisoners can only wash themselves with a small bucket and ladel, use a hole in the floor as a toilet, and with only one bunk bed per room some are forced to sleep on the floor. Little natural light comes into the grubby cells where prisoners are forced to spend 20 hours per day.
The Prosecution is lodging an appeal to have her "lenient" sentence increased (maximum penalty being death by firing squad) while the Australian Government is looking at possible political solutions.

Since her arrest Schapelle has been allowed to attend church services in jail and was described as having a new-found faith. She reportedly spends much time in prayer and it is not difficult to understand how anyone in her shoes would naturally want, and probably be asking for, nothing short of the whole terrible nightmare to end.

I don't objectively know if she is innocent or not, but I am certainly troubled by her situation. I don't know how I would manage to survive if that was me in her place, knowing that this is Earth and not Heaven therefore truth and justice are not guarranteed to rule. On Earth, pinning hopes on such things can be totally futile. Thousands of prisoners rot in such places in this world and certainly don't get the media attention afforded this particular case.
If that was me, should I be hopeful that God might intervene and secure a miraculous release? Is that what Schapelle was praying for? But what if God doesn't intervene and do what I want Him to do? Who says God has to do what I want Him to do? Am I greater than He is, to be telling Him what to do? Oh, I can by all means ask… we are instructed to ask and to keep on asking, and asking and asking.
I wonder how long a new-found faith will hold out under such circumstances if there is no miraculous release, and maybe the Prosecution is successful in having the sentence increased to Life Imprisonment, or even Death. What happens then?

I think there are some choices.
How about an infant-type temper tantrum, throwing toys out of the sandpit, screaming in angry defiance, refusing to accept anything else instead, and sulking in mortal misery? That would be self-indulgent, and rather painful.
Or coming to the conclusion that God does not exist since He won't prove it by doing as He is told? That would be arrogant and self-defeating as well.
But there is another option.
How about doing what we are actually expected to do since being born - that is, get on with growing up instead? In the end, the latter option is really the only viable one in any circumstances.

Some (but not all) of my beliefs that help me to grow up (and I've still got a lot of that to do!) include the following:
1. I am not Number One - God is. He is in charge, not me. It is He who calls the shots. I don't.
2. God is my Creator - I am His creature. I exist only by His grace and favour.
3. I have stewardship, but not ownership, of those things given to me - my possessions, my time, my self, my life. They do in fact belong to Him for use according to His purposes. I am to serve Him by being a servant to others and sharing what I have.
4. God is real and has a relationship with me in which He expects me to be real as well - that is to be honest, authentic, close, and surrendered to whatever is His Will for me.
5. This world I live in is only my temporary home. But while I am here, where I am found is where He will use me, no matter where that is, no matter what situation I am in, no matter what is happening nor what outcome there may be.

Growing up is not about being self seeking, self indulgent and wanting one's own way regardless of how desperately that may be the case. It is more about removing the focus from self to God and one's neighbour instead. These were the summation commandments that Jesus told the Pharisees:

Matthew 22: 37 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

And when I am tempted to protest and stage some kind of temper tantrum, it helps me to stop and remember Jesus, His terrible agony and His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane that night before his trial and crucifixion.

Luke 22: 39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." 41He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." 43An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Thinking of what Jesus went through on the behalf of us all, the terrible cruelty of scourging and crucifixion, my own situation pales into total insignificance by comparison. Despite His extreme anguish and suffering, He did this obediently and willingly out of His great love for us. I am a long way from being grown up, but I know there is no point crying like a baby when God my Father intends to use the circumstances of my life, no matter what they are, so that I may grow to become like Jesus.

I will be praying for Schapelle and her new-found faith. Her situation is terrible, but if God does not see to her release from jail, then her opportunity to grow and serve Him in this situation is immense as well. Not knowing what He has planned for her, I pray that by His grace her new faith will mature to sustain her regardless, that she will not give in to despair and hopelessness, and that her relationship with Him will remain real no matter what lies ahead.