Staying Steady in Unsteady Times
2 Timothy 2:7
For years now, I’ve met almost every Thursday for lunch with a couple other pastors. We usually talk about all kinds of important things. We discuss Biblical and theological issues. We discuss the state of the church in America. We discuss politics. We discuss what’s happening on Dancing with the Stars. You know, important stuff.
The past couple of times we’ve met, though, we haven’t been able to get away from one subject: the economy. Each of us has seen retirement funds shrink. We all know people who’ve lost jobs. Our own churches or churches we know are facing financial challenges.
You could probably tell me that it’s not just pastors who are discussing the economy. Rumor has it that Hollywood types are cutting back on Oscar parties. That probably means they’re buying their caviar online, like the rest of us do.
Anxiety seems rampant these days. School nurses are reviewing how to spot depression and anxiety in children, children who are overhearing what their parents are saying.
We’re fearful of growing older, fearful of losing our edge, fearful of failing, fearful to things we cannot even name…..
Paul’s young protégé Timothy knew fear. His may have been the fear of failing as a minister, fear of ridicule, fear of the Roman authorities. We don’t know.
In any case, Paul’s words remind him and us that a life permeated by fear is not what God intended for us. “God,” he says, “has not given us a spirit of fear.” The word could be translated “cowardice.” What Paul told Timothy lets us know that the Christian faith isn’t just for the ‘sweet by and by,’ it’s for the not so sweet here and now.
Though these may be unsteady days, we don’t have to be unsteady.
I
WE MAY STAY STEADY IN UNSTEADY TIMES
WITH COMPETENCE
You may start to feel unsteady when you think you’re unequal to the task.
It’s a problem we may face at any age and at any time. But it’s a real problem during unsteady times. You may wonder if you will be able to handle changes and challenges that these times bring. Will you be able to balance your budget or pay your bills? Sometimes you may wonder if you can handle a job change, learn the new tasks, and get along with a new gang of co-workers. Start feeling unsteady in a situation like this and you’ll approach the situation with the sense that failure is inevitable, that success is not an option, that you won’t be able to do what needs to be done.
It’s a feeling which has caused some to say “no” to opportunities to serve God in the church and elsewhere. It’s a feeling that makes you say “why bother” when you have to face new challenges.
We don’t have to succumb to that fear.
The word “power” implies more than just raw, untamed energy. It means the capacity to accomplish what needs to be accomplished.
Timothy faced the task of leading the Ephesian church through some of the most difficult years in its history. Aware of this, Paul used one word that told him, “With God’s help you can do it.”
Certainly we can apply this principle to doing the work of the church, but I believe it also lets us know that God will enable us to do what we fear is impossible to do, to face the challenge we never expected, never wanted.
II
WE MAY STAY STEADY IN UNSTEADY TIMES
WITH CONFIDENCE.
Does it seem strange to include “love” in the list of resources to help us stay steady?
We know better, but when we face troubles in times like this, we may begin to think God has stopped loving us.
Paul wants us to know we can be confident of God’s love. His love abides.
Nothing life throws at us can separate us from the love of God.
In another context, Paul spoke about this love. His words have inspired martyrs, missionaries, and simple saints for centuries. They’re found in Romans 8. Listen to The Message paraphrase:
35. Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death?
36. (Even the Scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep." )
37. No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
We can keep on because we know the love of God remains unchanged.
English poet Edith Sitwell was born into a wealthy, aristocratic home. She was a bright child but singularly unattractive; she knew she was unattractive because her mother told her.
Whenever she voiced her fear that she would be alone in the world, that no one would ever want her as a wife, her father would say, “Don’t worry, you will be taken care of.” That became the title of her autobiography.
God’s love says to us, “Don’t worry, I will take care of you.”
III
WE MAY STAY STEADY IN UNSTEADY TIMES
WITH CALMNESS
Unsteady times can throw our thoughts into a whirl. We can’t think straight. We can’t even make clear decisions about what to do next.
God can give what we need to make the right decisions as we face frightening situations.
Some translations render the last statement as “discipline,” a word we more often associate with our outward behavior. The familiar “spirit of a sound mind” is closer to the meaning but we usually associate a sound mind with freedom from mental illness.
An unsound mind is a frightening thing.
A few years ago, I received a call from a man obviously suffering from delusions. He believed the henchmen of a prominent industrialist were out to get him. The FBI and the CIA, the man claimed, were helping his powerful enemy. I asked if he had any family he could talk to about his fears. He told me both his wife and his mother were working with the CIA.
Most people will never suffer that kind of mental illness but we still sometimes allow our thinking to get out of control, to be so undisciplined that we cultivate thinking that encourages fear and panic.
What Paul is suggesting as an antidote to the spirit of fear is discipline in our thought-processes.
I think this is one of the most important resources for facing fearful days. Clarity of thought is so necessary as we face stressful, frightening situations.
You may be facing some challenge during these unsteady times and you feel like running, screaming into the night. You don’t have to.
God can give you the calmness and clarity of thought you need to survive.
This kind of thinking allows you to question the conspiracy theorists who would have you distrusting everyone.
This kind of thinking allows you to realize that your situation isn’t really the one situation in the entire universe in which God is incapable of doing anything.
CONCLUSION
Timothy faced the possibility of Roman soldiers knocking on his door at midnight and taking him away as an enemy of the state. It was an unsteady time.
The problems which most often make us feel unsteady are more common place.
Isn’t it good to know that God has given us the resources to face these days?
