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).
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