Living on Borrowed Faith

2 Timothy 1:3-7, NIV – I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.  Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.  I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.  For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

We come back to Paul for one last letter to his protégé and dear partner in the mission of God, Timothy.  This is Paul’s last letter and Paul is again in prison.  While he writes the letter, his trial is going on, but it is not going well.  Paul senses he may be at the end of his run.  He hopes to summon Timothy to visit him so that he can pass on the mantle of leadership to his Timothy.   We don’t know if this visit ever happened, but in this letter, we have a last snapshot at Paul’s thoughts and feelings as he nears the end of his life.

                In the opening passage above, Paul recalls the beginning of his relationship with Timothy and Timothy’s family.  He recalls how Timothy’s faith resembles that of Timothy’s grandmother and mother.  It’s a subtle detail to our 21^st century sensibilities. but it tells us a lot about how the Christian faith has changed Paul.  In Paul’s day, to say that that a man was like his mother and grandmother was NOT usually a compliment.  Men were expected to be like their male ancestors in every good way.  To say that a man resembled women in any way was a harsh criticism.  But Paul bucks this trend and holds up the faith of these Godly women to be something of which to be proud.  Lois and Eunice were leaders in the Christian community from which Timothy came and Paul is wanting to call Timothy to leadership as well.  The faith Timothy that came from his mother and grandmother is a gift that now needs to be “fanned into flame.”  The implication here is that gifts are to be paid forward.  

                I thought about my grandmother not long ago as I packed up a Bible that she had given to my grandfather shortly after they married.  While I’ll never know for sure what prompted her to give him a Bible as a gift, I’d like to think that it was given in the hopes that he would read it and become a man of deeper faith.  I’d like to think that it, like the gifts of Lois and Eunice, was a gift of faith to her husband and my grandfather.  I only knew my grandfather as a man of faith, so I’d like to think that my Mimi’s gift was successful.  Whether all that is actually true, what I do know is true is that both my father and grandfather considered becoming a pastor but neither ever did.  The upbringing and traditions of my childhood are what eventually equipped me to say yes to God’s call to be a pastor.  Remembering all this feels like Paul’s charge to fan once again the gifts I have received into flame. 

                What about you?  What built the foundation of whatever amount of faith you now possess.  I assure you, it was the investments and gifts you received from others that primed the pump.  None of us can take credit for our own faith; it is always a gift.  And it there’s one thing that is always true of gifts, it’s that they are supposed to be paid forward. 

Questions:  Who are the people through which God transmitted faith to you?  Who are the people that God is using you to transmit faith to them? 

Prayer:  Creator God, you have used the seeds planted by others to grow faith up in us.  For that provision, we praise you and acknowledge that it is now our privilege to plant some seeds of our own.  Guide us in the planting.

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the leaders of Israel and Palestine as the violence and death continues to escalate in the Holy Land.

Song: Links In A Chain – Martin Carlberg