16.09 | Think Over
2 Timothy 2
‘Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.’
2 Timothy 2:7
It’s not easy to get a straight answer out of the internet.
It used to feel simpler. The internet used to feel like a goldmine of knowledge—making the learning of the ages accessible in our homes.
But it’s got harder. The algorithms that filter clickbait content to our screens. The unbalanced views of tribalistic PR. The prevalence of false information. The rampant increase in AI-generated information of dubious quality. The platforming of the opinionated, the extremist, and the liar—with the quiet wisdom of nuance and depth too sophisticated for our impatience. Our souls are starving for the nourishment of wisdom, and yet our search engines keep on stuffing us with fast food.
All this plays to the speed we want to go at. We tend to want our answers fast. We don’t want a long essay about the food; just give us the recipe. We don’t want a PhD on sports psychology, we just want ten ways to get more motivated. We don’t want the nuance of parable or proverb; we want the simplicity of a soundbite.
When Paul mentors Timothy, it turns out, he isn’t very Google.
Be strengthened by grace, he begins.
Strength. We seek strength all the time—wanting energy, vitality, capacity. We run after supplements and exercise programmes and hot yoga and caffeine. And yet, Paul points us to something more essential. For his words suggest that our exhaustion is primarily rooted in nothing more greatly than an anaemic understanding of grace. That behind our anxiety is a misunderstanding of His grace. That behind our workaholism is a misunderstanding of His grace. That behind our constant feelings of deficit is a misunderstanding of His grace. We live as exhausted prisoners in delusions of a graceless existence, never learning that the soul of strength has become strong through increasingly knowing the measureless, loving, running, healing, restoring, saving, securing, providing, enriching, behind-and-before-you grace that is found only in Jesus. This is no quick fix, but a lifelong, further up and further in into the heart of the Father that is discovered only in the grace of Jesus.
My friends, be strengthened by grace.
As Paul goes on, he remains ungooglish.
No soldier gets entangled…
An athlete is not crowned unless..
The hard working farmer who ought to…
Three mini-parables.
And, for our fast-paced, just-give-me-the-answer world, Paul is most frustrating. Because he doesn’t explain them. Instead:
Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding.
Think. The translated word here has the sense of a continual action, not an instantaneous one. This will take Timothy some time.
The grace journey—the wisdom journey (for they are the same)—does not come quickly. It is not found in memorising a few quotes, or being able to reel off a few right answers. “Right answers’ usually feel like clichés when they come from a heart that lacks depth; and yet, the same words, when crafted into the soul through time spent living it through, can be life-transforming. Wisdom requires time. It grows with reflection, patience, questioning. It comes through mentors and Scriptures that do not meet all of our questions with simple answers, but that require us to take truths away—thinking over, praying through, walking out.
Think over what I say.
Are you wrestling with a question about God? Is there a parable you do not understand? Is there a question about the Scriptures that you are stuck on? Do you understand Paul’s words today?
Take heart, and continue the journey. Think over these things, for the Lord will give you understanding. And to the one who continues this journey—through the wonderings and questions, through the interaction of life and pain and beauty and tears and learning and wondering—strength awaits. The truest strength. The strength that comes from walking the eternal road that God has called grace.
Reflect:
Take one of Paul’s mini-parables today. Think it over. Ask the Lord to give you understanding.
Pray:
Lord Jesus,
Too often
I am tired,
Overrun,
Overwhelmed,
Over-committed,
And under-resourced.
And so, Lord,
Grow me in grace.
And as I tread this way,
Would you teach me the value of
Slow.
That I become a person of
Wisdom and knowing,
Not of soundbite and cliché.
And as I live this way,
May it make your heart apparent,
And may I live from your heart—
For this heart
Is grace.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
1 Chronicles 1-2 | Psalm 108