Wednesday, January 6, 2021
This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I have been sent out to tell others about the life he has promised through faith in Christ Jesus. I am writing to Timothy, my dear son. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace. Timothy, I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again. I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:1-7
When Hillary Clinton wrote It Takes a
Village nearly 25 years ago, I had one of those bristling moments of ambivalence. It didn’t take me long to sort out my mixed
feelings. I loved the quotation, adapted
from an African proverb; my bristling was due to the political Grand Canyon
between myself and Mrs. Clinton.
While political convictions might land on entirely
different universes, the impact of a universal truth cannot be denied. And that effect of a culture, the collective communities
of humanity, upon a child’s outcome is only somewhat measurable, but it is palpable.
Putting genetics aside for a blessed moment, children
are blank slates when newborn. Parents
are primary in early formation, but as these little ones begin to engage in the
larger population the endless combinations of forces, good and evil, blessed
and damning, do formative work. For some
that work is paralyzing, stopping us dead in the water; for others it is
empowering, propelling challenges and change which lift us to higher
planes. But virtually none of it is
achieved in a vacuum; the village will have its effect.
In the intricate and complicated world of the 21st
century, the village is shrinking and exploding at the same time. The shrinking part is in
actual human contact. Relationships are
conducted via glowing screens and phone trees.
And this, paradoxically, by a
generation that claims authenticity in relationships as its hallmark. The exploding part is knowledge
at the fingertip, the supposed answer to whatever ails us. This shrinking and exploding is either a definition
of progress or implosion. Depending on
your point of view it will either lead us to the Great Society, or Armageddon.
I give as evidence to this whole line of thought
Paul’s protégé, Timothy – a timid man in an extrovert’s occupation. Timothy was gifted by God with faith, which
was nurtured by Eunice and Lois. Through
prayer and the support of his mentor, Paul, Timothy was installed as a
pastor. Years of Christian nurturing in
Tim’s village, a cocoon of mother, grandmother, and Paul the travelling
evangelist, yielded an introverted, shy, uncertain pastor-teacher who needed
bucking-up occasionally.
These few verses teach us another universal
truth: whatever we have become that is
attributed to the upbringing of “our village” there must be an ongoing support
system to make any lasting use of that which God has allowed. Paul was that support system for Timothy,
praying and writing to him. In short,
what Timothy needed was confidence to move forward, especially against the
uncertainty of the culture he was going to confront. That confidence was energized by Paul’s
timely influence. And that kind of
village-influence is going to be the gold standard as we enter 2021.
For You Today
A question or two –
1. Who is Paul, Lois, or Eunice to you, giving you the confidence to go on?
2. To whom are you Paul, Lois, or Eunice, and are you fanning the flames of
confidence for them to go on?
[1] Title Image: Eliseo Miciu on Facebook.com
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For other posts on this text see Facing Your Fear and The Fear Factor
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