12 That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.
In March 2000 in a matter of days many of the habits, life situations, patterns disappeared. What was normal was no longer acceptable or possible. Many of us had a sudden awakening of what we really needed or wanted to be ok. Some of us were told that we couldn’t go to work and we were ok with it for a little while but then we started missing the people. We went from being able to go to any store whenever we want and buy whatever we want to standing in line to get in a store, to buy in limited quality whatever was left, we went from shaking hands and greeting each other with a smile to staying 6 feet away and saying hello from behind a mask.
Many of us became irritable. Some of us saw friends express an opinion that was not our opinion and we quickly were not friends. Through the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic many of us discovered what we really counted on to be ok. For some of us it surprised us that we needed access to toilet paper, freedom to go where we wanted to go when we wanted to, and people to agree with us to be ok. Many people in our society have not recovered from this reality and have fell into the rut of surviving instead of thriving.
Key 2 – Know Whom You Trust
To thrive in 2022 we need to know who we trust. The gift of the last 2 plus years has been that it has given many of us to become clear with what we really trust to be ok. We really don’t know what we trust at our core until crisis or conflict happens. When what we need to be ok gets exposed we have an opportunity to respond – for some of us, it is confirmation that we are rooted in the right thing and for many of us it is a chance to adjust what we rely on to be ok.
Paul was encouraging Timothy to be reminded of who God is and how Jesus came to die for our sins and that Jesus was trustworthy. Paul shared his testimony, his story of saying I am in prison and I am ok with that because I know Jesus died for my sin and conquered death so that I don’t have to live separate from God, but I can live forever with Him. And I can live through persecution, punishment, abuse, imprisonment, and potential death because I know the one in whom I trust. Paul was thriving not because of his circumstances but because of his trust in the one whom he trusted. Paul knew if Timothy were to follow Jesus that circumstances would sometimes be difficult and that if Timothy was going to thrive he would need to be rooted in the one whom he trusted.
For us in 2022, we all have a unique opportunity to evaluate and know whom we trust to be ok. We can look back at the last 30 months and evaluate the times when our stress level increased, where we became irritable, where we got judgmental, where we felt hopeless and then examine why we felt or responded that way. What was it that we needed to be ok? Did we need to have good health? Did we need to have accurate information on what was going on and what the plan was? Did we need freedom to do what we wanted to do when we wanted to do it? Did we need others to agree with us? Did we need to feel important? Did we need comfort?
As we look forward to the next season of life, many of us want to move from surviving to thriving and to do that with longevity and power we must know the one in whom we trust. If we trust God as our protector, Jesus as our Savior, Holy Spirit as our Comforter and Counselor then we will be ok no matter the circumstances and we will have freedom to thrive. In life we all will have troubles, unexpected speed bumps, the phone call that we don’t want to have, the meeting that didn’t go the way we had hoped, the transition that happened too soon, the relationship that didn’t go the way we had wished, but if we trust God with our identity, our solidity, our future we will move from trying to control and manage our lives to living in a free spirit of moving where God wants us to be. Thriving is rooted in knowing the one in whom we trust.