Your namesake

Dearest Timothy,

I feel as though I'm constantly coming up with ideas to blog about ... and they disappear just as quickly. I'm trying really hard to hold on to them, but baby brain - which hit while I was pregnant with you - has morphed into mama brain, so I keep forgetting things. And that doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.

*Le sigh*.

Anyway, at the moment I've got one idea I'm clear on, so I'm going to run with it. In an earlier post, I mentioned that you were named after the Timothy that we read about in the Bible. I wanted to learn a bit more about him, so I started doing some reading in the book of Acts, to see where Timothy comes into the picture.

Timothy was from a town called Lystra. In case you are wondering, this town no longer exists - you won't find it on a modern-day map - but it was located somewhere in Turkey. Paul had visited Lystra several times in his travels, so the two probably met on one of Paul's first trips to Timothy's hometown. During one of his later visits there, Paul decides to invite Timothy, who is probably a teenager at the time, to accompany him on his missionary journeys.

And Timothy agrees to go. But why, you ask? Great question. We don't have much to go on in Scripture, but I think Paul gives us a clue. In 2 Timothy 2:5, Paul says that Timothy has "sincere faith." At first glance, the idea of having a sincere faith doesn't sound like much, but think of it this way: Timothy gives up a home with family and friends and a comfortable life to follow Paul into uncomfortable - and sometimes dangerous - places. And he's only a teenager, a life stage where, at the very least, friends and creature comforts are normally priority. Timothy really has to buy in to what Paul is teaching in order to join him, because life is about to get quite challenging. Incredibly awesome, but incredibly difficult at the same time.

At the beginning of his travels with Paul, Timothy hears of visions, sees amazing conversions and is present at the establishment of a church in Philippi. At this time, Paul also exorcises a fortune-telling slave girl, an action that annoys her owners so much that both he and his co-worker Silas land in jail.  This is followed by a miraculous and dramatic jailbreak that involves an earthquake, doors and shackles opening on their own, and the dramatic conversion of a previously suicidal jailer - as well as his family - in the middle of the night. Timothy is there when this all happens. And that's only in Acts chapter 16!

Timothy is there when Paul reasons with non-believers. He is there when Paul teaches in various places and when he encourages believers. He is there when Paul and his companions need to be snuck out of various cities for their own safety. And Timothy is also there when people outright reject what Paul has to say.

Like I said, the lives that Paul and his companions led were both incredibly awesome, but also incredibly difficult. Yet, Timothy believed that living this kind of awesome and difficult life was worth it. He believed it enough to say the initial "Yes." to Paul's invitation to come, and he kept on believing. How do I know? The two Timothy books in the Bible are actually letters written by Paul to teach Timothy how a church should be run. Paul left Timothy in Ephasus to lead the church there. Does that sound like a (young) man who thought that the cost of following Jesus was too steep? I think not. Sincere faith indeed.

Timothy, when I say your namesake was pretty incredible, I say that knowing very little about him, other than some of the things he witnessed and did. And, of course, the faith that he had. As I've mentioned before, we named you after him because your dad's name is Paul and he always wanted a son named Timothy. None of these other facts about the first Timothy were known when we chose your name, so we're not expecting you to emulate him by dropping everything and following your papa around everywhere and then some day starting up a church of your own. But I do hope and pray that, like Timothy, your faith will be sincere. It will be your faith because you want it to be yours, not because your papa and myself want you to have it. And that you'll go, not where we want you to go, but where God wants you to go.

I love you.

Mama