Joining Titus for a study in GOOD #6
So here we are, arriving already at the end of this short journey of discovery with Titus. I’ve learnt plenty and I hope you have too.
It seems like this whole adventure in doing GOOD leads us to walk a very fine line between doing and being. There’s been a lot of encouragement to do GOOD ane we could be mistaken in thinking that that somehow is what brings value to our lives – that the people who do the most GOOD are the most spiritual. But there’s been a lot about being too – it’s the kind of person we are that matters far more than what we achieve. Let’s have a look at how Paul wraps up his letter to Titus and see how that can inform us in our daily lives.
As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need. Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.
Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith.
Grace be with you all. Titus 3:12-15
This whole productive/unproductive dilemma is very close to my heart. I feel my sense of achievement – or lack of – keenly. I used to be driven by to do lists: for example, I could not sit down on a Saturday evening and relax if I had not competed a mountain of tasks first. And then I ran out of energy. My will to achieve outstripped my energy to do so. I’ve learnt in the last few years to adjust my expectations, to make peace with my limitations, but that sense of achievement is still a real thing. I saw it as the enemy for a while, but it’s not, I see that now. Living a productive life matters to me. It matters to us all. When my teenage daughter dropped out of life completely and barely left the house and barely got out of bed, she soon got to the point of feeling she had nothing to live for. Her life had no purpose. She did not have the self-esteem of knowing that she had a role to play in life. Her various counsellors and doctors have all encouraged her to do more – little by little, not overdoing it. And then I witnessed the good feelings she experienced about herself when she went with her boyfriend to help a neighbour to deal with an unwelcome mouse in the house. She seemed to stand taller, knowing that she had done something useful and productive. Her life in that moment had purpose.
Each of us walks a fine life between doing and being: a line that is different for each one of us and different for each of us as individuals at different times in our lives. We are here to do GOOD: humans were created for God’s pleasure, yes, but He gave us a very specific role – to be stewards of His perfect creation. If we are choosing to walk in God’s GOOD and perfect way, then each one of us needs to step up to our responsibility to care for the world and everything in it. That’s how the world works. That’s how the needs of each individual will be met. We are individual parts of a body, called to be interdependent and not independent. Life is to be lived in community, each supporting one another in their time of need.
As unique individuals, each one of us has a unique role to play in restoring the kingdom of God here on earth. We should never judge one another for our contribution or lack of, because it is between each individual and God to work out what ‘productive’ means for them. But when we fall into bed at the end of the day, we will say it has been a GOOD day if we have been there for someone, done our bit to help someone, created something, made someone smile, been the person we were created to be…let’s not beat ourselves up in that moment for what we have not achieved, but let’s be grateful for all the small ways in which we have partnered with God in living the GOOD life He created us to live.
Grace be with you all.
