As recently as 40 years ago, spending time remembering the past was considered by many health professionals to be some sort of illness. Today, it has been determined that nostalgic feelings can actually have therapeutic value. Being able to engage in a little mental time travel may actually help us deal with the problems we face today. Spending a little time looking into the rearview mirror can actually play an important role in shaping our identity. Recalling past experiences can give us hope and encouragement. It can make us feel that our lives have purpose and meaning.
In II Timothy 4:6–22, Paul writes to his beloved son in the faith, Timothy. Paul had worked and traveled with Timothy over the years, but now Paul needs Timothy for a special mission. He tells his dear friend that his aging mentor will soon be put to death. Yet, look at the hope that Paul holds. He is so confident. It makes me wonder, “When my time comes, will I be that confident in hope?” It’s a good question. Paul’s hope is steadfast. Hope requires a certain amount of courage, and we see in Paul what courageous hope looks like.
Of course, Paul could have resorted to being hopeless. He could certainly find reasons if he had chosen to dwell on them. You can hear them in this text. He’s lonely. Do your best to come before winter he writes. He instructs Timothy to bring his coat as it is cold in the prison cell, and it will likely get colder. He also says to bring his books and his parchments. He yearns to read the story again. You can hear the loneliness in his pen. Paul says that no one came to his defense at his trial. Demas left him and Alexander hurt him deeply.
This is an interesting warning. He says that Alexander the coppersmith did him great harm but that God will settle the score. Yet I don’t think Paul is talking about revenge. I think something else is going on here. Perhaps this is a moment of hope. We don’t know what Alexander did. Maybe Alexander is the reason Paul is in prison. Maybe Alexander has said things about Paul that was not true. Maybe Alexander caused harm by spreading false doctrine in the church. We don’t know. We just know Paul was injured. And he writes to Timothy because Paul knows Timothy would be concerned and needed to be alert for Alexander and others like him who might seek his harm.
If I understand the text, Paul is telling Timothy, God will take care of this, so Timothy, do not get angry with him. Don’t try to fix this. Don’t try to set this right, let God deal with Alexander. When wrong has been done, particularly to someone we love, we want to make things right. When injustice occurs, we want to set things right, but sometimes doing so just makes things worse. There are some wrongs we can’t make right. We have to leave them to God.
When something is wrong, and we can fix it, God may call us to do so, but wisdom requires discerning what we can repair and what must be left to God. Paul tells Timothy that this problem was not his to fix, Alexander must be left to God. In this moment, we see Paul’s steadfast hope. Paul trusts God to make right that which he cannot make right.
So, how does Paul maintain such steadfast hope? I think Paul’s hope comes from looking in the rearview mirror. Paul’s hope is tied to his memory. He is not naïve; there is much pain in his past. There is Alexander and Demas and a host of others who abandoned him when he needed them most. But Paul also makes a list of the people in his life that had been a special blessing to him, loved him, and had inspired him. He makes a list in his mind of those who had shown him what it means to be a follower of Christ. He tells Timothy that Luke is with him and gives him strength. He tells Timothy to bring Mark with him when he comes. This is a wonderful moment the Scripture shares with us. Paul and Mark had once had a falling out. In the past, Paul had thought Mark couldn’t be trusted. But somewhere offstage to us there was reconciliation, and now Paul desires a visit from Mark.
He tells Timothy to greet Prisca and Aquila. And then there is a list of names we know almost nothing about: Eubulus, Linus, Pudens and Claudia. We don’t know anything about them, yet in this moment, when the time of his departure is near, he is remembering them. Paul is creating a list.
He is looking back over his life and thinking of all the people who had inspired him, loved him, and walked the journey of faith with him. And because he remembers these people, his hope is strong. His hope for tomorrow is rooted in the love of his yesterday. Hope is something he sees in the rearview mirror.
Do you remember how God instructed His people to put out memorial stones that served to remind them of specific victories? Every time they walked by, they’d say, “That stone is for when God brought us out of slavery. That stone is for when God healed my child. That stone is for when God provided for our needs.”These memorial stones helped the events to stay fresh in their memory. In the same way, every one of us should have our own memorial stones. When you look back over your life, you should not dwell on the times you failed, you went through a breakup, your boss did you wrong, or when your business was destroyed; that’s remembering what you should be forgetting. I challenge you to remember when you were lonely, and God brought somebody great into your life. Remember when it was dark and you didn’t think you’d have another happy day, but suddenly God turned it all around and gave you beauty for ashes, joy for mourning? All of us should keep our memorial stones in easy reach.
Have you gathered any memorial stones for your life? What you are remembering will go a long way in determining how you will view tomorrow. If you’re remembering all your defeats, your failures, your hurts, it’s going to cause you to dwell in continual despair. If you could just start remembering your victories that might be just what you need to propel you into a new level of hope.
This is what David did when he was about to face Goliath. He could have focused on how big Goliath was, and how Goliath had more training, more equipment, more experience, but that would have just made him discouraged. The scripture says David remembered how he had killed a lion and a bear with his own hands. What was he doing? He was looking in the rearview mirror and remembering his victories. He could have remembered how his brothers mistreated him and tried to make him feel small or how his father had disrespected him. There were a lot of negative things in David’s past, just like in all of our lives, but David understood this principle. Dwelling on your defeats, your failures, your hurts, will get you nowhere. David chose, instead, to dwell on his victories. You may be up against a giant today. Remember your blessings. Remember your victories. Go over your memorial stones one by one.
It’s interesting; in the Old Testament we hear a lot about the staff that men would carry around with them. It wasn’t just a walking stick, not just something to keep wild animals away; it was more significant than that. Back in those days one of the main ways they kept important records, important dates, was to etch it on their staff. That was their personal record. On this date, we defeated the Amalekites. On this date, my son was born. On this date, God brought water out of a rock. Their staff was literally their personal record of their history with God. When Moses parted the Red Sea, what did he do? He held up his staff. He was saying, in effect, Lord, we thank you for all the things you’ve done in our past.
Even David, when he went out to face Goliath, he didn’t just take his slingshot. The Scriptures says he also took his staff to the battlefield. No doubt he had etched on it, “On this date, I killed a bear with my own hands. On this date, I killed a lion. On this date, the prophet Samuel anointed me the next king of Israel.”I can imagine, just before he fought Goliath, he ran back over and looked at his staff one more time, read over it, just to give him that final boost. Then he went out, confident in the victories God had given him in the past.
So my challenge for all of us is to never forget what God has done. On a regular basis, go back over your memorial stones. Hold your staff up high when those negative memories come back to haunt you.
I know that memories of the past can poison us. Some have toxic memories that they may never outlive. Paul had many negative experiences that I am sure he remembered. Yet, when Paul looks in the rearview mirror of his life, he pays more attention to the positive; to the signs of God’s fingerprints that he sees in others, and he keeps the list. On that list are Luke and Mark and Linus and those in the household of Onesiphorus. Because he remembers them, he has hope that cannot be shaken. So, I ask you, who would be on your list? Let me invite you to do something. Make a list—written or just in your mind—but make a list. Consider the victories. Consider the names of those who have loved you and taught you what it means to follow Christ. I think such memory is the soil in which courageous hope grows.
Dr. Worthington has been in the ministry over forty years and serves as President of Pathway Ministries.