Equipped for Good

What Good Can I Do Right Now?

…equipped for every good work.

— 2 Timothy 3

Five words caught me today.

Equipped for every good work.

But he word that really caught me wasn't equipped.

It was good.

Within the past hour, I clicked on a social-media notification. It led to another post mocking Christianity. I hadn't gone looking for it. The person hadn't sent it to me. An algorithm decided I should see it.

And there it was: an invitation into the quicksand.

I could read the comments. Compose a response. Rewrite it. Research the argument. Perhaps post something. Perhaps delete it. An hour could disappear remarkably easily.

But then comes Paul's phrase:

Equipped for every good work.

What good would I actually have accomplished?

That's different from asking whether I could win the argument. It's even different from asking whether I'm right. Maybe the better question is whether this particular argument was ever mine to have.

Meanwhile, within a block of wherever I happen to be, there is almost certainly something good I could do.

Someone could be encouraged. Something could be cleaned up. Something I've been putting off could finally be finished. Someone could use a phone call. I could leave a place a little better than I found it.

Most of it would never be noticed.

That's okay.

Paul's words come at the end of a familiar passage about Scripture—teaching, correcting, training us in righteousness. And then he tells us where all that teaching and training is supposed to lead:

Good work.

Yesterday the Psalmist prayed, “Turn my eyes from watching what is worthless.”

Perhaps today Paul shows us where to turn them.

Away from whatever is consuming me without producing anything worthwhile.

Toward the good that is already waiting to be done.

I don't have to fix everybody on the internet. I don't even have to answer everybody who is wrong.

But I am equipped to do something good.

And there is probably something good I can do right now.

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