2 Timothy 3:14a
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of…
One day recently, I found myself laying on the floor in Sydney’s room listening as she taught me in her school. There’s not much cuter than watching your seven year-old daughter hold a pointer in one hand while she guides you through a series of questions and answers. She’d point to a map and ask, “What state is this?” I’d answer correctly, of course. Then it was onto the alphabet, and even though she mixed the order up (like any good teacher would), I knew all 26 letters.
Finally, it was the math portion. Simple problems came first. 8+3, 2+1+4, 10+10. I was on fire! Then she smiled a smile that said she was going to really try to stump me, and she said, “One thousand plus 200.” As soon as she said it, she looked at me and grinned. I said, “Ooh, that’s a tough one. Let me think a second.” She waited. I “thought.” When I felt that I’d taken long enough to be convincing, I gave her my answer.
“1,200.”
She just kind of looked at me, like she didn’t quite know what to say. Eventually, she kind of mumbled “that’s right” as if she wasn’t really sure if it was. I pressed her a bit when I smiled and asked if she was sure I’d gotten it right. Knowing she was in a tough spot, her face lit up with that “okay, Dad, you got me” smile that melts me and she laughed when she said, “I don’t know! I haven’t learned that yet!”
Later, I couldn’t get that innocent exchange out of my mind, and it occurred to me that it is eerily similar to the dialogue the church often has with the culture around us. We play as if we have all the answers, but at some point they catch us. They find us asking them questions as if we have the answers, but with a bit of pressing, it becomes painfully obvious that we have asked them to answer questions that we ourselves haven’t even learned the answers to yet.
When Michael Jackson turned 30, Oprah Winfrey asked him, “You’re 30. What do you know for sure?” I don’t remember his answer, because I was too amazed at the simple brilliance of the question, and how the answer is more likely to be a short list versus a long one. And that’s okay, as long as the short list contains the most important answers.
Paul told Timothy to continue in what he had become convinced of. Paul was convinced that nothing could separate him for the love of God (Romans 8:38-39), and I have found that to be a touchstone truth for me, too. I’ve learned through life that I can be convinced that my God will never leave me, that He will never turn His back on me (Hebrews 13:5) and that there is always grace, even if I feel that the sin in my life is too big for it (Romans 5:20).
I’m also convinced that if we would spend more time living out what we know and less time trying to pretend to know everything, that the culture around us would find itself asking us questions about what we’ve learned instead of trying to catch us in what we haven’t.
And who knows? The passion and the honesty in our answers may be what helps them decide to come to school with us.
