Skip to main content

Get Out of the Way

                I grew up valuing toughness.  I blew out my knee playing football in high school. Though it was black and blue for three months and I could not bend it in the morning, I did not go to the doctor.  Several times, I have had to teach on Sunday morning with deep gashes on my face after being cut with a stick or a puck while playing hockey.    My only regret is that they did not leave better scars.  In the thirty years that I have worked for the church, I have used eight sick days.  To me, being tough is a good thing.
                Imagine my joy, then, when I decided to preach through 2 Timothy!  This letter is full of words like, “guard” (2 Timothy 1:14), “Be strong” (2:1) and “endure” (2:3).  In fact, those three words were going to form my sermon this past week, until I read the verses more closely.
                “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).  Other versions say, “Be empowered by” or “Find the source of your strength” in the grace of Jesus.  Timothy was not asked to be courageous and to step up.  Rather, he was told to do the work of God by the power of God.  
                Also, Timothy was told to guard the gift he was given, but he was to do so “by the power of the Holy Spirit that lives in you” (2 Timothy 1:14).  Again, it was not about Timothy’s strength, but about his ability to submit and let God work through him.
                How many blessings have we forfeited because we thought we could run God’s church by our own strength?   How many preachers, Sunday school teachers, and elders have burned out because they tried to carry the load alone?  How much joy did we miss by trying to tough it out?
                If Timothy, with all the advantages he had, could not do God’s work by his own strength, what chance would I have of doing it that way?
                Fortunately, our toughness was never God’s concern in the first place.
                “We constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith” (2 Thessalonians 1:11).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dark and Light

            When you look out at the world, what do you see?             Some see nothing but trouble and pain.   They point to things like poverty, crime, problems with drugs and alcohol and marriage break-ups and say that the world is full of sadness and sorrow.   Watch the news for even a half hour and you will get the idea that the world is a dark place.             Others see nothing but good.   They appreciate generous people in their community.   They think about their friends and neighbours and smile.   They marvel at the beauty of sunrises and stars at night.   To them, the world is a bright and wonderful place.             You may be surprised that the Bible supports both of these world views.   On one hand it says things like, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the
1 comment
Read more

New Article: Five Words to Improve Your Relationships

                 In the late 1800s, it was common for railway companies to plant formal gardens beside their stations.   These gardens were filled with trees, shrubs, flowers, and fruit trees.   Sometimes they also featured a kitchen garden growing lettuce, carrots, corn, and potatoes.   Estevan’s Canadian Pacific Railway Garden was once located where Mid-City Plumbing and Heating is today.                The purpose of these gardens was to show what the land could produce.   After hours and sometimes days of riding across the featureless prairies, the railways wanted to show settlers the potential of their new home.   The gardens showed what was possible and they encouraged the settlers to transform their own land and discover its potential too.                Today’s verse acts similarly, in that it challenges us to find the potential in
Post a Comment
Read more

Forgetting What Is Behind

                   Generalizations are helpful because they show a pattern that is normally true. However, they are also dangerous because they ignore the exceptions to the rule.                  Here is my generalization:   It is a quality of the strong to be able to forget the past and move on.   The apostle Paul summarizes this idea when he states, “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God had called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). Too often, we trip over things that are behind us.   We remember and nurse old hurts.   We rehearse mistakes that no one else recalls.   In doing so, we pull the past into the present and allow it to dictate how we feel right now.   In these cases, we would be better off “forgett
Post a Comment
Read more