Coming Up For Air

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, 2  To Timothy, a beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3  I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 4  greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, 5  when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.  2 Timothy 1:1-5, New King James Version Charles Krauthammer is honest enough in The Point of It All to admit that, even as a surgeon, witnessing his first birth by C-section, "It was difficult to see the poetry for the blood.“ Parents and other disciplers can relate. Perhaps that's why the Holy Spirit inspired Paul as Timothy's spiritual father to insert

3 I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, 5 when I call to remembrance the [b]genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice… From 2 Timothy 1, New King James Version Elyse Fitzpatrick in her influential parenting book, Give Them Grace effectively reduces the opposite approach. “We're very comfortable thinking, good parenting in, good children out.” Since we are as permanent she says to reducing parenting, and relationships generally, to a pragmatic, manipulative formula which she has stated with such directness, I've decided to share four of her factors for parenting differently. Perhaps some of these distinguished the faith which Paul recalls dwelt in Timothy's mother Eunice as it did in his grandmother Lois. 1. “I thought parenting

3 I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, 5 when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.   From 2 Timothy 1, New King James Version T.S. Eliot deems dangerous the tendency "to associate tradition with the immovable; to think of it as something hostile to all change; to aim to return to some previous condition which we imagine as having been capable of preservation in perpetuity". "Tradition without intelligence, he challenges, "is not worth having.” As a vibrant antidote to immovable tradition personified, 2 Timothy 1:5 gives us a glimpse of Timothy's grandmother as Paul's paragon of abiding faith. Be warned, this isn't your grandmother's faith. Whate

3 I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, 5 when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt  first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. "The hardest war to fight," insists Switchfoot in "Against the Voices "is the fight to be yourself." I call that vigor to mind when I consider Paul's verb describing faith in 2 Timothy 1:5. I suspect that if we were to animate faith with verbs, they would be somewhat defensive, impersonal verbs like proclaim, conform to, and pass on uncorrupted. The faith Paul recalls as coursing through Timothy's family line is not a brand, a banner, or a badge. When Paul describes faith here, he describes it as dwelling in succeeding generations. Paul seems to experience a sense o

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, a beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, 5 when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you… "My guilt," realizes Tim Keller in retrospect in Songs of Jesus as he meditates in print on Psalm 130, "was like low-level chronic pain. When it was removed," he says of his personal epiphany, "I realized it had drained my life of joy and confidence." Having lived into adulthood and mistaken zeal in ministry with something like the low-level chronic pain of guilt that Tim Keller describes, the apostle Paul seems determined to exercise the possibility of the im

3 I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy… Drawing from the deep well of David's Psalm 30:5 assurance that sorrow may last for the night but that joy comes in the morning, Tim Keller extends in Songs of Jesus , "While God can be angry with his people, anger is never the final word, and so joy is always on the way, always coming to those who believe in him. In Jesus," Keller's sense of persevering joy builds, " this principle goes even further, to "sorrow PRODUCING joy." Paul has the same sense of the continuity of the human emotional spectrum in 2 Timothy 1:4. He specifically calls to mind Timothy's tears. He knows life and distance are painful. He isn't a Pollyanna.  Yet he, like Keller, sees times of sorrow and vulnerability as a means to a greater end, THAT he

3 I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears… From 2 Timothy 1, New King James Version As much as I love the pith and penetration of a good quote, or a bad one to make the opposite point, I don't always source them well. Thus, we will have to leave a sentiment I came across with respect to tears for the angels to credit, were more likely for Christ to hold to account. The writer said tears are OK, but that when they are finished, one still has to figure out what to do. Casting Crowns in one of my favorite songs and albums, both titled Between the Altar and the Door gives a holy sheen to the idea that tears are temporary. They are, the song laments, often dry before we get leave the floor of our repentance. Paul has a different idea about tears, though. Their purpose is apparently more lasting than the evaporation of saltwater f

3 I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 greatly desiring to see you… Charles Dickens celebrates in A Christmas Carol ,"“It is no small thing, when they, who are so fresh from God, love us.” Before Dickens wrote it, Paul lived out that kind of exothermic, expansive fission by the grace of God. In 2 Timothy 1:3 and 4, he wanted Timothy to feel on the printed page that he had a fierce, praying advocate in Paul. Paul wasn't satisfied with that, however. As we continue in verse four, Paul wants Timothy to feel that love, to be bolstered by that support in a face-to-face encounter. In a culture in which face-to-face encounters are much less arduous to accomplish and yet seemingly are dismissed or disparaged in favor of technological drive-bys, I was wondering what some of the connections between fervent prayer and insisting on the face-to-face at the core of relationships might be. 1.

3  I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day 2 Timothy 1:3, New King James Version Martin Townsend in a Reel documentary on Patrick Swayze notes that the dying actor did not try to hide his illness or its impact on him. He still signed autographs, letting fans get close enough to see his weakened condition. "There's a grace," notes Townsend, "that comes when we refuse to let fear rule us." Paul knew something about this connection between fearlessness and gestures of grace. He puts the two ideas in proximity in 2 Timothy 1:3. He has come to terms with his own past, recognizing God's prerogative to convict and change Paul's convictions in His own time, declaring that as for Paul his conscience was clear. This thorough absolution motivated Paul to serve, and motivated him to look backward from a place of grace and declare that his forefathers, in their turn,

I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did… 2 Timothy 1:3, New King James Version Lifeline Productions provokes a lot of thought in precious seconds of radio time. In one of their sketches, a character greatly announces he is changing his name. When a friend charges this character with dinging his car, the reason for the new name and identity shift becomes clear. He can blame the fender bender on who he used to be, even seconds before, rather than humbly coming to terms with his wrongs. Paul could do something of the same thing and tailor his message much more neatly to our thirst for novelty. He is a new man, after all. He charges us that we are new creations and that old things have passed away. He tells us to forget that which lies behind and press on toward the high calling of Christ Jesus. We have, it would seem, Scriptural sanction for self-serving amnesia. Maybe not, at least considering the whole counsel of the Word of God. For, one beat after

 I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience… 2 Timothy 1:3, New King James Version In Star Trek Discovery 's first season, an officer turned mutineer is offered a chance to reenlist. When that proffered opportunity to put a new start into action is declined, the offering officer follows up with, "Are you hell-bent on self persecution?" The answer in common with our human flesh, whatever the century, is yes. However unpleasant the lash of reproach is, we become accustomed to it. We begin to identify with it. Even if we glimpse the possibility of redemption at some vague point in the future, we keep it at arms length. I'll take action again, we tell ourselves, when I have felt sorry enough for long enough, or when I know before actually acting that I'm a different person. The apostle Paul won't have it. In 2 Timothy 1:3 in his own testimony, he links the realization of a pure conscience with service. Let's consider briefly five different ways in which

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, a beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I thank God, whom I serve… "In the heroic period of the Christian religion all believers were men who knew the love of Christ and rested upon it," Spurgeon phrases with beautiful simplicity and alliterative rhythm in Morning and Evening, "as a man leaneth upon a staff whose trust trustiness he has tried. "It," Spurgeon radiates with the fission of faith which transformed those he describes, "was a passion with them of such vehement and all-consuming energy that it was visible in their actions, spoke in their common talk, and looked out of their eyes even in their communist glances." Working outward, he declares, "Because of their dependence upon Christ's love they dared much, and because of their love to Christ they di

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, a beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I thank God… Switchfoot catches completeness in their song title, "The Beautiful Letdown," and in the lyrics of that song the drill down further. It's a pledge, a resolution, better resolution of deep breath gratefully returned rather than grimly pursed lips. They sing of their Earthly journey, "I will carry across and a song where I don't belong. I don't belong here." Paul knew both detached discipline and enthusiastic worship. He radiated both to those he influenced, and we see the fullness of their value as he begins to address Timothy again. Paul has yielded authority in his life. Jesus is Lord, he says at the end of verse two, just as he has already consigned his words and his purpose to Christ when he recognized in verse one that he was