excerpt from "Stir It Up"
Paul is writing to his friend and younger co-worker and (at least in the King James version) the translation is “stir up the gift off God that is in you… for God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness but of power and love…” “Stir up the gift of God”
Now we don’t know exactly why Paul offered this counsel to young Timothy, neither do we know precisely the nature of Timothy’s problem. Perhaps some criticism had made him bitter. Perhaps some ill-health had made him timid. Perhaps some difficulty had made him fearful of failure or rejection. Whatever the reason, it appears that Timothy had tasted life and found it bitter. He didn’t want to drink anymore from this particular cup of life.
How many of you are coffee drinkers? Personally, I do not drink coffee but Timothy reminds me of a person who might taste a cup of coffee and find it too bitter for his/her taste. As we put it down, unfinished, the hostess notices and advises “stir it up.” Then, in stirring the bitter becomes sweet. We discover that the sugar that has been placed in our cup has fallen to the bottom and only by stirring does the cup become full of goodness again.
For it is only in stirring up our faith that we come alive to the power of the risen Christ, to see and to know that life is not empty, bitterness does not reign forever. There is a power available – the power of faith in the risen Christ who lives in you and me. Such is the faith of the Christian that stirs us to newness of life.
So “stir up the gift of God” that is in you – the gift of hope, the gift of faith and stir it up with love. For finally, in the last analysis love is a gift that needs some stirring. Love has become an over employed word for an under employed work. In relationships and marriage, for example, how often does love settle to the bottom of the cup. Unless there is some conscious activity of love, the taste becomes bland and the temperature lukewarm. Or in the larger community in which we live – how quickly the love for our neighbors becomes insipid unless we are moved to genuine concern, some clear activity of compassion and good will. And so to our love of Jesus Christ can disappear beneath the hardened feelings of some personal grievance or wound, unless we are willing to stir ourselves up from time to time.
You see even in the most intimate relationships there is always the danger that we will allow these gifts of faith, hope and love – the heavier elements of life – to sink to the bottom of our souls and rest like some priceless treasure – unheard, unseen, unknown. But the good news is that the treasure is within us – the gift of God is within you, waiting to be seen, waiting to be heard, waiting to be expressed to make life good and sweet. So “stir it up” – the gift of God – the gifts of hope and faith and love – which are in you. Stir it up for God gave you, not a spirit of fearfulness, but of power and love…and thanks be to God for his gifts.
Pastor Lorah Houser Jankord 
June 20, 2010
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