When Assumptions Fail

We are having a woodstove installed in our home. We already have gas heat, but the woodstove will share the heating duty in the future. Its real purpose is to be available when our energy supply is either limited or not available. I have laid up a supply of good hardwood stacked and ready to burn.

The rolling blackouts being experienced in other parts of the country have caused many to rethink their assumptions about our energy supply. Europe is facing a cold and dangerous winter, and due to the war in Ukraine, predictable energy supplies always available in the past are no longer guaranteed.

It’s a good feeling having the woodstove installed in a world where what we assumed would always be available is not as secure as we once thought.  The same goes for having a little extra food, medicine, and savings set aside as a pad against the unexpected. Our parents and grandparents understood the unreliability of assumptions made in times of peace and prosperity.

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul was instructing a young and unsure leader on how to navigate the hard times of faith and ministry. In the opening verses of his second letter to Timothy, Paul wrote, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” (II Timothy 1:7). Older translations interpret “self-discipline” as “a sound mind.” I prefer the older translation because, to me, self-discipline is the by-product of having a sound mind.

Those who have gone through times of financial depression and world wars are dying off, and so is the soundness of mind that disciplined their response to life. To a forever prosperous and warmed generation, preparation seems like a waste of time. “It will always be there!” some will say, whatever the “it” is. That is not the language of a self-disciplined and sound way of thinking.

We need to review our assumptions. Not all of them are based on sound thinking. Maybe an adjustment is in order that will require we exercise self-discipline. The decision to discipline our lives will become a blessing for us and for others in the future. When the world becomes cold and hungry, our lives, even our homes, can become a place of refuge and sustenance for the unprepared. To do so requires our thinking to be sound enough to have considered preparing for such an event.

This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Garris Elkins

Featured Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

About the Author

Garris Elkins is a Kingdom Winds Contributor. He and his wife, Jan, serve the global Church through writing, speaking, and mentoring. They live in southern Oregon, tucked away in the foothills of the Rogue Valley. Their shared desire is to have each person learn how to hear the heart of God and become a transforming voice in their culture.

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