Withness 4: Who's Your Timothy? You Need a Protege

Read 2 Timothy 3:10-4:8.

As a minister, I find myself on many occasions walking with friends and church members through the painful valley of death when a loved one passes away. I am always amazed at how much an individual and family has to deal with at a time like this. Not only is there the pure pain of the loss, there is the mountain of decisions that need to be made and paper work to be filled out to insure that the questions of what is to happen to the person's estate are answered. We usually group these issues under the general heading of "getting their affairs in order". I think it is truly a blessing when an individual has had the foresight to make as many preparations as possible so that their family is not swamped by these issues or, worse, left to battle it out in a guessing game of what the deceased's wishes truly were. Unfortunately, a lot of folks are not comfortable thinking ahead to their own demise, and so they leave these issues unsettled.

I think that is why I find this chapter in Sweet's book an exciting and challenging chapter all at the same time. Sweet proposes that we need a protege, someone who is our apprentice, someone who will be an heir not to our possessions but to our life and soul. Having been a Timothy several times over, it is exciting to think that God might use me to mentor another Timothy. However, at the same time, to accept that reality is to accept the reality that I will not always be. My time is limited. I think part of finding a Timothy means learning to say and think like Paul: "I am already being poured out as a libation and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

Sweet speaks of the importance of Shunammitism: "the cultivation of leadership by the old in the young through the hospitality of teaching, mentoring, and deploying." Do you think this happens in our culture today? In our church? What benefits come from these types of relationships? What are the challenges to these types of relationships?

Sweet says: "It is not just that you can get a lot more done if you have heirs, but that sometimes you can't even do what God is calling you to do without heirs." Do you agree? Why or why not?

Sweet points out that two keys to a mentoring relationship are abiding in the presence of the mentor and listening to the mentor. These seem to be two rare commodities in society today: presence and listening. What challenge does this bring to the church? How can the church respond?

Sweet says: "... most Timothys want to be clones, not heirs." What is the difference?

In Matthew 5:47, Jesus asks of his disciples, "And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?" Sweet poses this question to each of us. "What more are we doing?" This question raises the issue of what do we mean by more. Is more "better" or is more "different"? How do you hear Jesus' question? Why is this an important issue as we think about the Timothys in our lives?

Some questions from the end of Sweet's chapter that I thought were noteworthy:

Saint Benedict, in his Rules, says a couple of times that 'the young should respect their elders, and the elders should love their juniors.' Which group do you think has the harder task?

Do you think Timothys need rites of intiation? How much of youth's experimentation with high-risk behaviors is an attempt at self-initiation? What are some of those high-risk behaviors?