Stir into Flame

Stir into flame the gift of God that you have...” 2 Timothy 1:6

Today we celebrate the Feast Day of Saints Titus and Timothy. Saint Paul wrote letters to both of them as they were his companions on his missionary journeys. The second epistle to Timothy was written with great affection sometime in 67 C.E. while Paul was imprisoned in Rome, towards the end of his life. 

He writes, “I am grateful to God...as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day. I yearn to see you again...as I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and that I am confident lives also in you.

“For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice

but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his sake; but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.”

It is good to read this as a letter to ourselves as well. Indeed we all have received gifts from God, and if we do not find out what gifts these are and use them, we will be like birds in a forest, silent, with songs inside us that no one can hear.