"The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you." - 2 Timothy 4:22
St. Paul went out in style.
Most agree that today's verse contains the final written words of St. Paul. They're a final outpouring of grace in a letter that is packed with encouragement and counsel on the very most important things in life: Almighty God, God with us through Jesus, encouragement in Christ, and a call to trust the Lord in doing things that are hardest to do while we walk and live in faith.
St. Paul went out in style with an outpouring of grace in a letter that is packed with encouragement and counsel on the very most important things in life.
So, how do you want to go out?
Well, let's concede that none of us is going to go out by getting a book in the Bible no matter how truth-filled our book might be. So, that pretty much leaves us with living our life (as the old saying goes) as if it's the only Bible that some people will ever read.
St. Paul was imprisoned and sensed what was most certainly true, namely, that his end was near. And yet, instead of being bitter and withdrawn, he believed--in God, in the Son of God who's with us, and in God's children. Why else would Paul go out with a letter of encouragement?
It's because he believed!
And out of that faith came an act of memorable goodness. So memorable that we're reading it over 2,000 years later.
And God desires that, out of our faith in Christ, there would flow acts of memorable goodness too.
Yesterday morning my son and I were stuck in one of the parallel-then- converging drive-thru lanes of the McDonald's between our house and his school. We sat there for 8-10 minutes at least. We were going to be late. But we let the car that was parallel to us merge into the single line ahead of us anyway. It must've been memorable to him/her because when we got to the window to pay our $2.39 we discovered that the person that we'd invited ahead of us had paid our bill. And that must've been memorable to us because, well, I'm telling you about it right now!
Two simple, brief, and inexpensive acts. But memorable nonetheless.
There's a thousand of these opportunities every day.
At least.
Opportunities to make the last moment memorable, if indeed it happens to be.
How do you wanna go out? How do you want to be remembered?
St. Paul wrote an amazing letter. As for us, let's just go live an amazing day, full of simple, brief, and inexpensive deeds of loving kindness and grace.
Spread the love, friends, spread Jesus' love!
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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