Fan The Flame

             I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. (II Timothy 1:5-7) 

What do you think about gifts God gives? It seems to me that some people think it’s like Spiderman’s super power. One day, they’re “bitten” by the Holy Spirit and suddenly, they can something new and amazing. And yes, God can work that way, but that doesn’t seem to be what’s described in today’s passage.

Paul says he was persuaded that Timothy had a sincere faith. He is sure that, through the laying on of his hands, Timothy received a gift of God. What was this gift? We may be tempted to list of one of the gifts mentioned elsewhere: miracles, prophecy, apostleship, teaching, pastoring, healing, speaking in tongues, etc. But as I look through Scripture, God often describes Himself as the gift. No matter what gift we want to say God gave Timothy, it was a side effect of the gift of God. Later in the passage, Paul points out that God gave Timothy (and us) the Spirit, which in turn gives us gifts of character: power, love, and self-discipline.

And, for some reason, Paul doesn’t think that gift is being used, or at least not used to the extent it could/should be. Timothy was not living to his potential. Why? How? What was the problem?  Paul doesn’t say, but there seem to be lots of possibilities or at least lots to think about. For example, what does Paul mean by “fan into flame”? Does one fan one’s ability to speak Spanish into flame? Or one’s skill at crocheting? Or does one fan into flame one’s motivation, one’s courage, or some other character trait like power, love, and self-discipline?

Since Paul mentions that the Spirit does not give us timidity, that would seem to be at the center of his difficulty. What was he afraid of? There is at least one reference to Timothy’s youth. There’s another to the fact that his father was Greek. That ties in with the mention of his mother and grandmother. With those in mind, what are your reasons why you can’t or don’t do something? Are you too young, old, poor, uneducated, of the “wrong” racial, sexual, or cultural demographic, busy, weak, sick, disabled? Or was he thinking he was being humble, or respectful, or otherwise trying to make friends and influence people by holding back, trying to be “kind and loving” by not making waves? Was he reluctant to act or speak in a way that might get him in trouble, thinking that by staying out of trouble he was being a good witness? We can’t know.

But we can turn the focus to ourselves, and ask what gets in our way. I have caught myself not putting a fish symbol on my vehicle or not wearing a cross so that I wouldn’t embarrass God when my behavior wasn’t perfect. I’ve also thought that there are any number of things “wrong” with me that would cause anyone I would talk to about anything important to reject what I had to say just because I said them. (I do not maintain that these reasons are rational or accurate, but that doesn’t stop me from believing them.) I suspect others have variations on these themes; reasons why they hold back. So what’s a person to do?

Paul’s answer is to fan the flame of the gift of God. That is, to pray for God, Himself, to act, to guide, to empower, to enable, to encourage, to enthuse, etc.