Scripture, Identity, and Legacy
"...that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:4b-7).
When I was young, I had night terrors. What I experienced was beyond bad dreams. I wasn't quite awake, but nor was I fully asleep. Rather, I was in some sort of twilight existence as I "dreamed" horrific images. What made it worse was that my family couldn't wake me, and I was even fearful of them during these episodes.
After the first time this happened, my parents taught me the verse above from our epistle reading this coming Sunday. I memorized it and said it often. The terrors didn't go away all at once, but they did eventually subside. I don't know fully what that was about. There might have been something physiological that science can explain, but I'm convinced based on the nature of the episodes and the images in my mind that there was a spiritual component to it.
In any case, my parents equipped me to address it by appealing to God's Word. And through that strategy, I was reinforcing the truth of how God had given me a spirit that was bold and not afraid, which drove home who I was in Christ.
Like Timothy's mother and grandmother, my parents handed me down a gift, a deposit of faith that stuck with me. I was taught how to navigate a spiritual reality in the way that Jesus did when he faced the enemy – by appealing to the Scriptures.
Friends, let's employ this strategy in our own lives. Doing this will help remind us of Scripture's truth's when we face fear, temptation, hardship or sorrow. Not to mention, there is power in God's Word. And as we do this consistently, it also has a healing effect for the hurt and broken in that it reminds us of our identity in Christ and reinforces that truth in our spirits (e.g. I'm a child of God, redeemed, forgiven, declared holy and blameless, no longer a slave to sin but a new creation, bold, powerful, etc.)
But let's also encourage each other in a similar manner. Like Timothy's mother and grandmother, let's offer deposits of faith to those in our immediate family and those who are part of the family of God (the church). And let's do it in a way that demonstrates gentleness, mercy and empathy because we all struggle in one way or another.
Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. Strengthen the faithful, arouse the careless, and restore the penitent. Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. (BCP, pg 817).
Fr. Darin+