Turtles, Timidity, and Timothy

It must be nice to be a turtle. Take your time getting where you need to go -- and then not even have to worry about getting back home before dark, because you brought it with you! Not to mention the relative safety! Trouble comes, and you just pop back under your shell.

If I'm being totally honest, there are days I really envy that in a turtle. Days when I want nothing more than to hide in my shell, and shut the world out until it leaves me alone. Because, let's face it, it's a cruel old world. It's not the easiest place to remain innocent and keep your eyes on Christ. It's not always easy to be bold
about your faith in a world that mocks the very idea of God and derides conviction as something medieval.

Some times, I wonder why Faith doesn't come with a shell to carry around with us, for when the enemy's arrows come raining down.

Timothy, a young leader of the early church, must surely have felt the same way -- and then some! Maybe that's why Paul, in his second letter to his young protege, made sure, right away, to encourage him.

I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. (2 Timothy 1:5-8)

Yeah, says Paul, Christians have it tough. (And let's face it, Timothy's church, and churches around the world today, have it a LOT tougher than you and I!) But Christ gave us not only a mission to reach others, but a command to love them. And not only a command, but the strength and courage, in His Spirit, to fulfill it. 

So no, we don't have a shell. We have something much better: the Power of the Living God.