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Onesiphorus, Phygelus, and Herogene


You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me.  May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus. (2 Timothy 1:15-18)
          This morning, I came across a social media question about why people don’t help 99% of the time. Part of my answer to the questioner was that we tend to want our knights in shining armor to ride in, do all the work, and leave until we want help again. The helper doesn’t really matter so much, because we’re using them to meet a need (or a want.) Another reason I told him was that people aren’t mind-readers. We must communicate our need for help to them.
          This is part of one of the lessons I’m learning in Grace Cottage. When Dad was alive, he fixed things, or he told me to call someone to fix things, or we went without them. Now, I have to look to others. I have to ask and that’s hard. It’s not that I think I’m so great and shouldn’t need help. It’s that I want to be invisible, and needing help interferes with that. I’m concerned that my visibility and my neediness will make people resent me.
          The idea that people don’t help 99% of the time, or that friends disappear when trouble comes isn’t new, and there is truth to it. In today’s passage, Paul told Timothy that everyone had deserted him. In one of my stories, Zheann observes that the hex that makes Rys invisible is an accusation against a Rys. Chances are good that if you find yourself in need, the faces in the crowd won’t be those of helpers, but of those who relish your pain.
          Those who claimed to be Paul’s friends to the end, just like the disciples who vowed they would follow Jesus to the death all ran away when trouble reared its ugly head. But he was not left completely alone. Onesiphorus stuck to him like glue. Most of your friends will not be there when you need them, but a few will, or a few will return like the disciples did.
          Do you think you know who your Onesiphorus is, and who your Phygeluses and Herogeneses are? They may not be the same people today that they were yesterday.

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