*Theme Week: Review of Paul – 2 Timothy 1
Old Testament: Ecclesiastes 10-12
Poetry: Psalm 53
Have you ever been asked to guard something? If you’ve ever played a team sport it’s likely that you guarded someone or something. When you play defense in basketball or hockey you guard someone. In basketball and football, there are positions called guards. In baseball, the catcher is responsible for guarding home plate.
We encounter lots of guards in life- prison guards, security guards, the National Guard. Celebrities and politicians and other rich and powerful people often have bodyguards. If you’re out with a friend at a busy place and they go to buy food or use the restroom they might ask you to “guard my seat”.
To guard something means that you have been entrusted to protect someone or something that is valued by another. In today’s reading of 2 Timothy 1, the Apostle Paul has written to Timothy and reminded him about all of the goods that have been entrusted to him in his life. He speaks about the sincere faith that began in both Timothy’s grandmother and mother now in him. He describes this faith as something that has been entrusted to Timothy and must be guarded. I have the image of going to the bank and bringing my paycheck and giving it to the bank officer and asking her to guard my money until I needed it. I am entrusting my deposit with the bank. Here, Paul is entrusting his spiritual deposits to Timothy. Just as Timothy’s grandmother and mother made spiritual deposits in his life, Paul too made spiritual deposits. Now it’s up to Timothy to both guard those deposits and also put them to good use. Paul freely changes metaphors to that of fire. A fire that has started often needs to be fanned, given more air, until it grows enough to really burn. Protect the deposit and fan the flame. This is Paul’s counsel to Timothy.
You’ve undoubtedly had many people make faith deposits in your life. For some, like Timothy, it was a grandparent or parent or other spiritual teacher or mentor. Maybe it was a Sunday School teacher or youth leader, maybe it was a pastor or a counselor at Church camp. For many, it was likely a combination of many people who taught by words or actions what it means to know Jesus Christ and follow him as a disciple. I know in my nearly 60 years of life there have been countless people who have made faith deposits into my life, and who have helped me with my spiritual formation. These people have shared incredible gifts of faith with me. I feel a particular responsibility to not allow those gifts to go by the wayside, to be left unvalued, unused, and unguarded. I take the deposits of faith that have been entrusted to me and put them to work for Jesus Christ and for the Kingdom of God. This is an incredibly important responsibility and one that I do not take lightly. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to those who made faith deposits in my life and so I want to “pay it forward” by making faith deposits into the lives of others. This is why 45 years after I first attended Youth Camp (Now FUEL) I’m still trying to make faith deposits. I hope and pray that you guard what has been entrusted to you and fan into the flame the gifts that have been given to you so that God’s word will continue to spread like wildfire into a world that needs more faith.
Jeff Fletcher
Reflection Questions:
- Take a moment to write down the names of people that you can think of who have made faith deposits into your life. Say a prayer of thanks for them, or send one of them a note and say “thank you” for the faith deposits they’ve made in your life.
- What are some ways that you can fan into flame the gifts that have been given you? What specific things will you do to help spread the faith in Jesus Christ shared with you?
- How can you best guard what has been deposited into your spiritual bank account by others?
Seek Grow Love 