Hot Gates

Chapter 7
Standouts
"... one of the most courageous stands in human history: Thermopylae."

"But at their core were three hundred Spartans, trained to stand or die. ("Come back with your shield or on it," a Spartan mother told her son.) They were led by a fifty-five-year-old Spartan prince, Leonidas. And they took their stand in a narrow pass, twenty yards wide, bounded by the sea on one side and the five thousand-foot cliffs of Mt. Kallidromos on the other. Hot sulfurous springs, which the Greeks called Thermopylae, or Hot Gates, bubbled out of these cliffs at the narrowest place."

"But before they died, they sent home the stirring message that has become their epitaph: 'Stranger, tell the Spartans that we behaved as they would wish us to, and are buried here.'"

"As the French philosopher Montaigne said of Thermopylae two thousand years later, 'there are triumphant defeats that rival victories.'"

"Will it be said of followers of Jesus Christ across the world, 'Passerby, tell our Lord that we have behaved as he would wish us to behave, and are buried here'?"

"'A time to stand' is a time to behave as our Lord would wish us to behave. A time to behave is a time to believe as he has taught us to believe. A time to believe is a time to move from small, cozy formulations of faith to knowing what it is to be called by him as the deepest most stirring, and most consuming passion of our lives."

The scripture focus for this chapter was 2 Timothy 4:1-8. As I read it, with ch. 7 in mind, I remembered those who were the "older people" when I first started in ministry. In the last few years several of them have "finished the race" and they are missed. One of the questions asked in this section was, "Why did Paul have confidence that he was finishing well?"

One reason I think Paul had that confidence was Timothy. Someone to hand it to, to take over, someone who would stand.

Several days ago, as I was going up the stairs to my office with my eleven-year-old nephew, he said to me, "I'm going to replace you." I think he meant he wanted my office space (just kidding - because we both laughed). But, in the deepest part of me, I hope that happens. I hope someone who grew up here takes over my office.