2 Timothy Chapter 2

So, whoa! I just loved this little chapter because it seemed that after each verse I read I thought, “THAT one was even better than the one before!” LOL! I laugh, but that really felt like it was kinda true. (Well, it was for me — but how did it FEEL for you?)

And speaking of “feelings,” did you notice which “feeling” word came up twice???

Well, it was a word that has been playing in my mind for quite a while now since I heard a very, very, VERY interesting “definition” of it a few weeks back. That “definition” is all about the  “GAP” between where we are AT now in our lives and where we WANT to be. (And here is a clue — the word is found in verses 9 and 3.)

The word is “SUFFERING.”

Oh yes, you bet we are gonna look at this. 🙂

Because looking at WHY we “FEEL” we suffer is very, very valuable — and maybe, even more, really very SPIRITUAL.

Let me explain how it works in my brain. 🙂

So, one thing I realized is that in 90% of our lives, we really do not have an “issue” following  what GOD says is right to DO. (Do you agree this is true?) For example, murdering our neighbor? Nah, not feeling called to do it. Stealing from our workplace? Nah, pretty good on that front. Burning down a building? No, I am “OK” to not go there today.

But in the last 10%, that “tiny 10%,” well, THAT holds a TON of the struggles, the stick and the “icks” that we SUFFER. It is the area that I really do not, cannot, or WILL not “see” just what I am doing … or maybe, better said, MIS-believing.

Hmmm … following me??

Yes, I can (have!) caused a lot of my OWN self-suffering in that 10%. (Some of it I was UNintentionally doing to myself, but some of it I was very INTENTIONALLY doing to myself.) And yet, I know I used to think that this ‘’suffering” was just a part of my “lot in life” because isn’t everyone struggling and suffering with some kind of strife?

But the TRUTH is that a lot of my ick, struggle, suffer and stick depended on the motive, mission and intention behind WHAT I was doing — and really made me think about whether it “has to be” or just LANDS in my life.

Because as Paul so clearly shows us, we SHOULD be “suffering” on some level (verses 3, 9). But really, it should be from a “spiritual-stretch” and suffering. Yeah, like any “fallout” that comes if I’m following my COMMANDER and am fulfilling my “soldier role” (verse 4) or if I’m being an “intentional-athlete” running hard after HIS idea of RIGHT (verse 5) or if I’m being a “faithful-farmer” tending to my spiritual field first, well then, THAT type of “suffering” is a whole lot different from the “suffering” that can creep into my world from sticking with that sticky 10% spot.

Do you see or “spot” the difference between the two?

Yes, we saw and read how easily THOSE “self-sufferings” can creep into our homes. Things like quarrels (verses 14, 23), entanglements (verse 4) and getting lost in the details (verse 16) instead of just …

FOCUSING ON OUR SOULS (verse 15).

Yes, if I just choose to keep my own “spiritual nose” clean (verse 19) and only focus on what GOD says is “best” for me, then whoa! I am like that pot we read about (verses 20-21) that gets cleaner …  and cleaner … and cleaner until …

POOF! I am ready to DO the things that God “grew” me to do and bring along so much VALUE:

 TEACHING OTHERS HIS TRUTH (verses 25-26).

The BEST choice I ever made was when I began to take all my OLD definitions and look at them through GOD’S WISER eyes. And the word “suffering” has been one of them. It has taken me from focusing on “ME” (my wants and the gap between where I am and the steady striving to be “somewhere else”) and looking for “HE.” And through HIS EYES, there is always a spiritual PURPOSE and PRIZE for what “suffering” I am feeling:

• Sometimes the suffering is to WAKE ME up…. 

• Sometimes the suffering is to SHAKE ME up….

• Sometimes the suffering part of the process to TAKE ME UP to a better place of PEACE with HIM…. 

Because once I am there? Only then can I SHARE (teach!!!) what HE has taught me — through that tiny little, oh-so-powerful word:

SUFFERING.

Eager to hear what YOU have to say on this one today.

Carol 🙂