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 30 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).
