1 Timothy 1:12-17
September 15, 2013
I am
grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged
me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a
blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I
had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me
with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy
of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of
whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in
me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me
an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the
King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever
and ever. Amen.
I think that the apostle Paul was a closet happy guy. He
really was, although “happy guy” is not the persona that most people think of when
they think of Paul. Paul has a reputation among many Christians as being
something of a crankypants. A lot of this has to do with the fact that many of
Paul’s letters seem angry and critical, especially his two letters to the
Corinthians. He says some pretty blunt and condemning things to those folks.
The reason we think of Paul as dour is that we only have
his responses, not what he was responding to. When you dig into Paul’s letters,
you begin to realize that his most critical letters were defenses of himself
and his teachings in response to a number of scathing letters he had received.
Imagine if, 2000 years from now, someone was doing research on you, but only
had the emails you wrote in response to a number of denigrating emails you had
received, not the original emails sent to you. What would those researchers
think of you? Would they say that you were defensive, thin-skinned, angry, or unreasonable?
Despite his reputation as being a sour, dour, glowering
man, I think Paul actually was happy, and found a key to happiness. And that
key is found in our passage for this morning when he says, “I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who
has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his
service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of
violence.” Paul knew who he had been, but he didn’t let it keep him from
who he was called to be. He knew that he had done terrible, terrible things
against the early Christians. He had persecuted them, contributed to the
stoning to death of the first martyr, Stephen, and led an expedition to
Damascus to hunt down Christians in order to bring them back to Jerusalem to
stand trial. Then it all changed when he had a vision of Christ on the way to
Damascus, which transformed his whole life. In a blinding flash he realized
that everything he was doing was actually persecuting God, whom he had sworn to
serve as a Pharisaic rabbi. Paul knew he had been a very bad man, which was
made worse by his conviction that he had been a good man. Yet he didn’t wallow
in his past. He focused on thanking God and being available to God.
Paul’s letters might have been critical at times, but
they were also exceedingly gracious. He starts most letters praising God for
those he is writing to, as well as praising them. This is a man who often,
because of his preaching and teaching, was illegally beaten, imprisoned, and
flogged, yet he never lost his passion or praise in serving God.
Paul understood a simple idea that psychologists are now
finding among those who tend to be happiest with their lives. These people always see the forest for
the trees. In other words, they make
mistakes, they struggle, they face difficult times, and they have down times,
but in the end they always keep a bigger picture in view. They know what their
lives are about, and most often their lives are about making a difference for
others.
Paul made a huge mistake, and along the way he struggled,
got hurt, was in bad situations, and made more mistakes. Still, he always kept
in mind a bigger picture. He always let
go and let God—he let go of the bad, and kept in mind the good that God was
calling him to do. You hear this in our passage: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the
foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the
foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example
to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.” He’s saying
that he knows he was wrong, but he also knows that Christ was calling him to
more, and that it was a life filled with love for others and himself.
What many psychologists are finding is that those who
struggle most in life often do so because they get obsessed with the details of
everything. For example, many can’t let go of the past. Perhaps someone they
trusted hurt them. Perhaps they hurt someone close. Perhaps they failed
mightily at something. Perhaps they were ignored and rejected by others. They
review these pains over and over and over and over. They obsess. They feel pain
or shame, and stew over it. They get stuck. But the happy ones learn to let all
of this go in order to become open to a better way of living life. Sure, they
might think about this stuff at time, and even feel remorse or sadness, but
they learn to eventually let the past pass.
Others among the unhappy become obsessed with noticing
the faults of others in exquisite detail. They notice every slight, every
possible eye roll, every mistake and failure, and everything that the other
does to disappoint us. Also, those who are unhappy tend to get bogged down in their own frustrations
and problems. They let issues linger, whether they are issues with their
relationships, their work, even games. For example, did you know that in cities
that have pro football teams, every time the home team loses the rates of
domestic violence go up? These are unhappy people because they can’t remember
that football is entertainment and just a game. If the game doesn’t go well,
it’s like going to a bad play or movie. Walk away and move on to other things.
There’s so much good in life to pay attention to.
Happy people have problems, notice faults, get
frustrated, and have issues, but they also have the ability to let them all go
in a reasonable time. They choose to focus on what’s right rather than on
what’s wrong. Jesus teaches this lesson: “Therefore
I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will
drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and
the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor
reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you
not of more value than they?” In other words, learn to let go and let God.
For me, the person who really personifies this idea is Donna
Rice Hughes. Search your memory
banks. You probably remember her from the 1987 Democratic presidential primary.
She helped derail the presidential ambitions of Gary Hart, a senator from
Colorado. Hart had been a rising star in the Democratic Party, and many thought
that he would be the perfect Democratic Party answer to the end of Ronald
Reagan’s term. Hart was smart, articulate, telegenic, and had a track record of
accomplishments in the U.S. Senate.
There were also rumors. It was being spread about that
Hart was having an affair, or a series of affairs. The press confronted him,
and Hart not only denied it, but laid out a challenge: “Follow me. You won’t find anything.” So a Miami Herald reporter took him up on his offer. He followed Hart
around, and discovered that he had spent the night at the apartment of a 29
year-old, former model named Donna Rice. The reporter also uncovered a damning
photo of Rice, sitting on Hart’s lap, on a Florida dock. Hart had on a t-shirt
that seemed to describe himself: “Crew
of the Monkey Business.” He also had been photographed with Rice on a boat
called “Monkey Business.” Hart soon
plummeted in the race for president, and eventually dropped out of the race
altogether.
Donna Rice, meanwhile, became the butt of jokes. People
pointed at her and stared wherever she went. She had to piece her life back
together, but it wasn’t easy. She had to both figure out how she wanted to live
her life moving forward, but also how to let go of this incident that had
completely ruined her life. It wasn’t easy because she was a victim of both
Hart and the press, but was treated as though she was the cause of all of
Hart’s problems. This was not how she imagined her life going. She had been making
a series of small, bad decisions, but they were also leading to a lifestyle
that was exciting and glamorous. She felt that she was on top of the world
until it all came crashing down.
She reflected on all of this in a 2013 interview: “Toward the end of my college career, I
started making these little left hand turns. Before long I was dating some
non-Christian guys and thought, "That's not a big deal." It's hard to
believe how you can go from here to there—you don't go there overnight, you go
there by little wrong choices. I saw Hart only twice, but ... God was trying to
get my attention prior to that, and it took an international sex scandal
because I was stubborn. God will track you down. He will let things happen, the
natural consequences of our choices.”
Rice did piece her life back together. First she
cared for a disabled woman for seven years. Then she met her husband and
married. After stabilizing her life and raising children, she eventually
decided to turn her notoriety into a positive. She helped start an organization
called “Enough Is Enough,” which promotes internet safety and sexual wholeness
for teens and children. She teaches parents how to become aware of the dangers
on the web, and how to steer children to sites that promote a positive life,
not a destructive one. As she has said, in reflection of her life, “Oddly, I was Miss Scandal Queen 1987 and
now I'm seen as this voice of decency and morality. That's a God thing."
.
Basically what all of this points to is that happiness is
a choice. But for some people it’s a really difficult choice because it means
letting go of the need to cling to frustrations, mistakes, problems, cynicisms,
anger, perceived slights, and more. The apostle Paul shows the way. He knew
that what he did was worse than anything you’ve ever done, or that I’ve ever
done. And the things done to him were worse than anything most of us have ever,
or will ever, experience. Yet he learned to let go and let God.
Amen.
