Having finished so many testimonies as my time would give me leave, in favour of this subject, No Cross, No Crown; no temperance, no happiness; no virtue, no reward: no mortification, no glorification. —William Penn

Questions: What would you want to communicate to those who have accompanied you on your faith journey, if you knew you were nearing the end of your life? Do you find it difficult to focus on living your faith intensely in times of peace and prosperity? How do you tend to respond to failure in yourself? Others? Seeing the example of Paul and Mark in this chapter, do you want to approach failure differently in the future? When you feel deserted by others in your faith community, how do you tend to respond?

When I was a young girl, I thought about death and dying a lot. Would I be able to die a pain-free death peacefully in my sleep, or would I become terribly ill before I reached a ripe old age? I wondered about being content with everything I did in life. Would I become the person I admired in everyday heroes? I can’t remember at what age my questions started, but I remember them to be coping mechanisms for circumstances of the life I had been born into. Where I came from, death was always around the corner. My street corner was littered with men who treated the neighborhood as a war zone. Friends betrayed friends to save face in front of bullies who provoked them; mothers fought with each other, and fathers who tried to be good role models often didn’t have a template to draw from for direction or encouragement. If anyone spoke of God, it wasn’t backed up with church attendance or Bible reading. Most of the time, life lessons from Scripture went hand in hand with what we refer to as “old wives tales.” It never occurred to me that I would find resonance with letters from a man from the first century who was essentially on death row.

Since that time of childhood pondering, I find that I’ve experienced many kinds of deaths: a death to the young girl who walked around with a perpetual chip on her shoulder due to being raised to always be on high alert; a death to the young woman who ran from calling because she didn’t feel intelligent enough due to her background. In those metaphorical deaths, ironically, I eventually found a life worth living. As I reread Paul’s prophetic wisdom, I cannot help but be amazed at his courage. He believed in his mission; his gospel-sharing witness to the world was paramount to him, so that even in the face of suffering, betrayal, and death he continued his work anyway. I appreciate the conviction of fighting the good fight, keeping the faith, and finishing a well-run race.

–Lynette Davis in “Friendly Perspective” from 1, 2 Timothy; Titus; Philemon; 1, 2, 3 John: The Jesus Movement