What have I left for others to follow?

I am working through 2 Timothy 3:10-17 and Paul gives a tough assessment of what is going on in the world and all that Timothy will have to undertake. It is a real assessment that reads like it seems hopeless.

What to do?

Paul’s instruction is simple: walk on. Stay faithful to what you have been taught because you know the ones who taught you. Timothy didn’t learn because he liked the teaching on a podcast. He learned because he watched faithful people walk with God and could truly believe the words taught because those people had lived it out in front of him.

“Timothy, you can trust what you’ve learned because you know the lives of those who taught you.”

As I look back on my own faith and my own belief, I am so deeply grateful for those who taught me because I could observe their lives and how they lived reflected a deep faith they also taught. I saw the presence of God through their lives.

This leaves me with a sobering thought as I think about no longer being Timothy, but asking the hard question: “Have I been Paul?”

I’m not so sure. I am not sure I have lived out a faith that drew people in so when I talked about faith it rang true because people could see my life and hear my words and know it all matched up.

What do I pass on? Have I lived a life faithful and in a way that others would see Jesus and decide, “Dan has done it and I hear what he says and I can trust Jesus because of it?” What have I left for others to follow?

It’s one thing to post on a blog and “sound good,” but an entirely different thing to have people see me… and decide Jesus may not be the One to follow. It’s sobering.

In my last third of life, what am I passing on? What have I left for others to follow?