12Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13Until I arrive, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to teaching. 14Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders. 15Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. 16Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers. 1st Timothy 4.12-16
My campus pastor died six years ago this week. When we went down to Lincoln for the funeral, I had what I thought at the time was the world’s WORST cold: completely stuffed up nose, scratchy throat, watery eyes, lost my voice the week before and the occasional sinus headache. It was at its worst the night of the visitation at the funeral home, so in I walked looking like I’d been crying non-stop for like a week, blowing my nose every 30 seconds or so and actually spending a few minutes talking with one of Larry’s daughters with a shred of Kleenex stuck to my moustache until my wife came by and whispered the news into my ear. I mean, not that I was embarrassed to cry at the funeral, but you’d rather people knew the whole truth at times like that, right?
