Confidence to Go On

 

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 21^st 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?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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[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      

 

Facing Your Fear

Timothy faced his demons like you and I must face ours.  Timothy was the Apostle Paul’s protégé.  He was a very young man and Paul took time to strengthen this timid fledgling of a pastor.  It’s not hard to figure out that the older folks in Tim’s church was what made the preacher a little nervous.  Paul told him not to let that get in the way of being a good example to the flock ^{(1 Timothy 4:12)}.

Everyone needs a Paul!  I had Pat.  Pat Giffin was a mentor to me when I was a new pastor.  Pat was blessed with the kind of wisdom and pastoral gifts you cannot learn in seminary.  I knew Pat for only the last four years of his life.  He was operating on less than half of his heart’s abilities.  Yet, with death’s shadow dogging him, Pat was a man full of life and joy.  Our Monday conversations were laced with his laughter and corny jokes.

Pat never told me I needed a sense of humor to be a pastor.  (Although he did tell me Mondays would always require learning a new joke – I guess that would be to counter the effects of spiritual attack most pastors encounter after preaching).  Pat offered little unasked-for advice, but was ready to help you find your fears and face them.  In the end he did that for me when he left instructions with his bride, Martha, that I preach his funeral service.

The little church was packed; there were as many standing outside as seated and standing inside.  At the end of the service I led the procession around the small pond next to the church, as we carried Pat to the cemetery.  When everyone was in place I was going to begin reading Scripture…and that’s when it happened.  The lightning flashed, thunder crashed and a torrential Florida afternoon “frog-strangling” rain shortened the graveside to thirty seconds.  As everyone scurried to the fellowship hall, I could have sworn on ten Bibles I heard Pat’s Monday afternoon laughter in that thunder.

I truly laughed out loud as I ran for shelter.  And in that moment I knew Pat had made his point – if God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear, there’s really only one other choice!