May 13 - Widows

May 13 - Widows - 1 Timothy 5:3-16

Diane says:
This passages just slays me. I think I giggled all the way through it. Though times have changed, people haven't.

Widows. There are all kinds and Paul has obviously encountered each of them in his churches. First of all, if they need help, they should be given help. But, if there is family around that can help, that should be the primary source. We need to care for our family members, not force the state or the church to be their resource. Paul is very clear about that.

Secondly, the widow that should be cared for is spoken of in 1 Timothy 5:9-10. She must be of a certain age, because you know those young widows just want to get married again! A husband is more important than Christ! (1 Timothy 5:11). They should have been faithful to their husbands and known for being a good person.

I love the description he has of young widows in 1 Timothy 5:11-15. Paul had no love for idle women. They wandered from house to house, doing who knows what, but they also were terrible sources of gossip and were busybodies. Oh my ... I've known plenty of those women in the church and I never want to be that!

Take care of who you can while you can so that the church can take the responsibility for those who are truly alone. I think that is a good wrapup for this passage.

Rebecca says:
There are 1,860 steps to the top of the Empire State Building, 2,109 in the Sears Tower. I was thinking about that this morning after reading a phrase from Oswald Chambers' wrote in My Utmost for His Highest "Some of us expect to clear the 'numberless ascensions' in about two minutes. I would have to agree, we have become an elevator generation physically and spiritually speaking. Our goals and aspirations are high but rarely are we willing to get there one step at a time."

that is what Paul was trying to warn us about in this passage. The word widow is derived from a word that means a 'gaping opening, chasm, or gulf.' What greater description is there than that for a widow? Her husband, friend, provider, lover is gone and she is left with a gaping void, a sense of incompleteness. Those that are wise turn to God (vs. 5) to fill that void, and those that aren’t as wise or sturdy in the faith run to find a filler for those shoes in a man (vs. 11). They don't understand that men are temporary filler for that void and unfortunately when they turn to them instead of God they are left with an unfulfilled life which leads them to all that gossiping and busy bodying (vs. 13). It is easy to spot an unfulfilled woman, easy to recognize those with gaping holes being patched up. In desperation they make bad choices and jump into everyone else’s business so as to avoid their own. Backbiting and slander are deflections used to keep the world's eyes off of their own voided chasm.

Our towns, workplaces, communities are filled with proverbial widows. Those with voids caused by loss, be it a husband, a job, a family member, a vice or even a home. We all are a widow to something and rarely do we turn to God to fill it, but instead look to men, women, food, alcohol, even religion to somehow make it disappear. Each of us at this very moment could probably identify at least 3 proverbial widows in our life. It is easy to spot them - just look for the discontent.

We are quick to knit mittens for babies in Uganda, and send school supplies and sneakers to Haiti. There are volunteer organizations that converge upon disaster scenes like an army, and in all of our righteousness we give to the United Way and buy a Toy for a Tot at Christmas and feel we have been elevated on that numberless ascension. Children in the schools in our neighborhood go hungry, single mothers cry because their sons have no male role model to show them how to grow into a man. There are people we rub shoulders with every day that live in the dark because they can't pay their light bill, elderly people are lonely and left to rake their own leaves, and babies are neglected or overlooked because they have young mothers who are lost and overwhelmed. A million widows in the biggest and smallest of ways surround us and we rarely even notice them, let alone reach out.

We strive for inspiring ministries, dream of being a bright light in a dim world and try to take gigantic leaps up that mountain in order to do great things for God. I am the worst hypocrite of them all. But God isn't moved by our overt sacrificial elevator acts of service that wow the world. He is moved by small 'from the heart' steps we take as we serve the world around us.

"She did what she could" was what Jesus told the men in Mark 14 when they were disgusted by the waste of such valuable perfume. To them it could have been used for some elevator ascension service but she chose instead to not feed the poor but to pour it all out on the feet that lay before her. She 'wasted' most precious treasure on one little step.

It is fine to dream of doing great things for God, but we also must realize that sometimes the greatest thing we will do for Him happens on one step with one person and we should pour into them all we have to offer. God does not require greatness, He only asks that we do what we can and step by step we climb the numberless ascension with Him.

Paul knew this; you need only to read 1 Corinthians 13:1 to realize he clearly understood the impact of a heart willing to do what it should. God has given us opportunities to serve Him on the steps. Chances to pour out our nard and 'waste' all we have on the feet of those that surround us. There are feet everywhere we turn, widows in wanting, wherever we go.

"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul." Mark 8:35, 36