Recently I started to ride my bicycle again. I remember, 10 years ago, when I would ride my bike close to 1000 miles a summer. Biking was fun, fueling, and something I did that brought joy to my life. I was excited to get back to biking and I thought it would be a great thing to bike 15-20 miles that first time out. Needless to say about 1/2 mile into the trip I realized that I hadn’t pumped up my tires to correct pressure, had failed to adjust my bike seat height to maximize my leg length, and I was terribly out of shape. The next morning I realized that I hurt in a lot of places that made it uncomfortable to sit down for more than 10 minutes. My perspective of biking in my current context was completely inaccurate and it caused me to reconsider if biking was in my future.
When we think about thriving in 2022, I think many of us have gone through a similar realization. What was fueling or fun in the past, now as we reengage it seems difficult, maybe painful, and most likely uncomfortable at first. As I have watched people step into connecting with God after COVID, I have noticed many people struggling with having an accurate perspective of who God is and what a relationship with Him looks like. When we have the right perspective, it sets us up to succeed. Many times in my life, I have failed or stopped doing something because I started with the wrong perspective and I quickly became disillusioned, discouraged, or critical. To thrive in 2022 we need to acquire the right perspective.
Paul again gives us a reminder of the reality of what it takes to thrive in who God has called us to be.
2 Tim 2:3 Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them. 5 And athletes cannot win the prize unless they follow the rules. 6 And hardworking farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labor. 7 Think about what I am saying. The Lord will help you understand all these things.
Key 6 – Acquiring an Accurate Perspective
- Expect things to not go the way you want them to.
To acquire an accurate perspective we need to start off with the reality that there will be time when things don’t go the way you want them to go. Paul reminded Timothy that he would face hardships, people not liking him, unexpected problems if he was to follow Jesus. Paul wanted Timothy to be in it for the long haul and he needed to assure Timothy that when hardship and troubles came, that it was ok, that it shouldn’t be a discouragement, but a reminder that going through hard things was a part of following Jesus, the life he has chosen. In 2022, I have experienced many people surprised that things don’t go the way that they would like it to go. If you need to witness how our culture is doing with this, spend a day in an airport, especially when there are delays and cancellations. Many of us need to be reminded that to thrive in 2022 we need to be ready for things to not go our way. If we are trying to follow Jesus, we must remember that not only can we expect things to not go our way, but that hardships will be part of the deal of following Jesus. Don’t get discouraged. Find community. Pivot and move forward.
- War on preference vs purpose
(Vs 4) Paul was telling Timothy that soldiers had to decide whether they were going to spend time with the day to day issues of civilians – he jumped the line at the well, why does he get to build an extra room on his house, why does she get the best spot to sell her bread — or to be a great soldier. It is so easy for us to get caught up in the small, preferential things of our lives. Paul was challenging Timothy to live a committed, thriving life by having him focus on his purpose over his preferences. Just like soldiers who shifted their focus to the mundane would never become excellent soldiers, so will people never become great at who they are made to be if they focus on their preferences. This has been a major stumbling block in our culture. Many of us have become slaves to our preferences instead of staying focused on our purpose. To thrive we must remind ourselves to make war on our preferences so that we can stay focused on our purpose of who we are.
- Need to follow the rules
(Vs 5) Paul was telling Timothy, that athletes can not win, even if they pass the finish line first, unless they follow the rules. Many of us in the past years have tried to change the rules (expectations/requirements) in our lives. We have tried to find the loop hole, the exception to the standard. Many of us have found ourselves taking shortcuts that have left us in dead ends. For people following Jesus, many of us have tried to rationalize our behaviors while still expecting the results of a race well ran with Jesus. We have sacrificed our character for convenience. We have negotiated our morality for medicating our emotional condition. We have convinced ourselves that we, our our kids, deserve something because of the hard they experienced over the last couple of years. Many of these rationalizations have left us bending the standards of our Jesus following lives and we have found ourselves missing a thriving life with Jesus.
- Be committed to work hard
(Vs 6-7) Paul was telling Timothy that farmers work hard to prepare the soil, plant the crop, provide water and nutrients to the crops, and then should be the first to enjoy the harvest. Paul was reminding Timothy that living a thriving life (and following Jesus) was hard work, So many times we want to take shortcuts, we see other people seemingly have it easier and we don’t put in the hard work it takes to live a thriving life, but we expect the rewards. Our culture struggles to understand hard work and the necessity for us to be not only ok with working hard, but willing to work hard to set us up to thrive.
If we do not have the right perspective, many of us will stop short of living a thriving life. We will become disillusioned and bitter about our situation. For people considering following Jesus, if we can acquire an accurate perspective we can easily overcome unexpected obstacles people with different perspectives, and the seemingly endless path of possibility. We can become powerful instruments to influence and impact our world by not letting an inaccurate perspective put us on the sidelines.