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“You must understand this…that distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them! For among them are those who make their way into households and captivate silly women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires, who are always being instructed and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth. As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people, of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith, also oppose truth. But they will not make much progress, because, as in the case of those two men, their folly will become plain to everyone” (Tim 2: 3-9).

We live in distressing times. Many who have come before us have, as well; in fact it is arguable that their challenges were greater in many respects. We live in the present, however, and so we are called to confront the issues before us. Indeed we seem to face them on every front: the political, economic, sexual, cultural, medical, domestic, religious, and spiritual. Some days many of us feel that everywhere we turn, there is conflict, disharmony, argument, gaslighting, and a refusal to face the one thing that we should all be able to agree exists: reality.

Today, the lack of insistence on reality and truth has led to continued dysfunction and disorder in our minds, bodies, spirits, and environments. Many of us try our best to point to truth, to return to what is real, but all too often our rational attempts are censored, mocked, and muffled under the unhinged screams of the woke elite. It is hardly surprising, then, that so many of us feel insecure, unstable, and uncertain. It is unreasonable and impossible to live in an environment, in a city, state, country, or world, that refuses to acknowledge truth. It makes us sick. It causes us to despair.

BUT, our faith calls us back into right order. It is indeed possible to coexist, at least for a time, with this cultural dissonance, because we know where to look for Truth. We know what is real and we know what is good. Timothy affirms our fears and worries born of the present day. He tells us to beware of these “reckless,” self-absorbed abusers, and to see clearly so as to avoid them (Tim 2:4). Most importantly, however, he tells us that despite what these “haters of good” (the media, the politicians, the mob) will try to tell us is true, we see clearly and beyond this deception (Tim 2:3). In time, we will see that “they will not make much progress, because…their folly will become plain to everyone” (Tim 2:9).

There is a time for righteous fighting and arguments. Most of the time, however, we must rise above the din of deception and chaos. Let us refuse to engage in needless noise and refrain from flailing around defending ourselves to those who can’t hear us. Let us “avoid” all of this and instead continue to point to the Truth that will inevitably set us free (Tim 2: 5).

“[W]hom the Lord loves, he disciplines….Endure your trials as ‘discipline;’ God treats you as sons. For what ‘son’ is there whom his father does not discipline? At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain; yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed” (Heb: 12: 7, 11-13).

“I am enough” has become a mantra of the current age. We are often told by self-help gurus and even well-meaning therapists that we are fine just the way we are. We are to be true to ourselves; be authentic; and above all, we are not broken, but whole and perfect.

These declarations and such advice might feel good; they might make us feel better about ourselves or our states in life. But this is not what scripture teaches. God loves us, yes, in our sin and in our saintly ways. But He is also consistently calling us to more. He invites us to the fullest flourishing our nature can obtain. Despite what popular culture tells us, original sin has caused us all to be broken. We have the capacity for evil, to turn away from God, and then suffer in the separation we have caused and perpetuated.

God’s discipline, His calling us to right order with Him, might often result in “pain.” Ultimately, however, it is cause for our “joy” and gratitude. For in the discipline we are “trained” to be upright; we experience the ultimate freedom that is the “peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

As we are spiritually strengthened, as we walk “straight,” we are blessed with the knowledge that our “lameness” is only temporary if we choose to turn away from it and look to God for guidance and mercy.

No, we are not enough as we are. We are indeed sometimes “disjointed.” Ultimately, though, our faith invites us to trust in our Father and be “healed.”