Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
2 Timothy 4:8 (NIV)
The Ones Who Longed
The bag has been by the door since March. Toothbrush, charger, two shirts, the folder with the numbers in it. He has taken things out of it twice and put them back.
He is on a list. The call, if it comes, comes at whatever hour it comes, and he has ninety minutes to be at the hospital, which is a seventy-minute drive if the bridge is behaving. He also took the four-to-midnight shift in February because it pays more, and four to midnight is the worst possible place to be standing when a phone rings. He knew that when he took it.
Paul is near the end and he knows it. There’s a crown of righteousness in store for him, and the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award it on the day he appears. Then he names the other people who get one: all who have longed for his appearing.
The Lord does the awarding, and Paul calls him the righteous Judge while he’s at it, so nothing about this goes out on sentiment or on a man’s own estimate of himself. And the people Paul names alongside himself are described by one thing. They have wanted him to come.
Paul doesn’t lower the crown to reach you. He tells you who else the righteous Judge is going to award it to, and the only thing he says about them is that they were watching the road. Wanting him here means wanting him more than you want the life you’ve built around his absence, and there are mornings when you’d rather he took his time. The want can be that divided and still be a want. Paul leaves the sorting of it to the Judge he keeps calling righteous.
And it’s a person he’s waiting on, not a rescue. A man can want out of his life badly enough to call it longing for the appearing, and the two arrive at the phone wearing the same face. Paul says his name.
He keeps the phone on the charger every night, on the side of the bed nearest the door. He keeps the shift.
A Prayer to Remember
We’ve wanted your kingdom the way people want a holiday months off, Lord, without letting it touch this week. We’ve built lives that run fine whether you appear or not. Some of us are tired enough to want you here today. Put that same wanting in the rest of us, and make it cost something. Come, and find us glad about it.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
