I love all those tiny little details in Scripture, don't you? This morning, as I was thinking about the closed and open doors in my life, I decided to read Acts 16, where Paul recounts one of his own experiences with closed and open doors.
Suddenly I noticed that little prefix circled below.
How magnificent! The idea isn't just that Timothy went with Paul, or accompanied him, or joined him. The verb Luke uses could be rendered "he went forth with him." The emphasis is on the point from which someone departs. Compare Matt: 13:1: Jesus "went forth from the house." Or Matt 15:21: "Jesus "went forth from there." Or John 13:3: Jesus knew that he had "come forth from God."
Paul didn't want Timothy merely to accompany him and Silas. He knew that in going with them, Timothy would have to also "leave" much. He'd had to leave Derby -- the city of his youth. He'd have to leave his home -- the only one he'd ever known. He'd had to leave his parents. If he was employed, he'd had to leave his source of income.
I suppose we've all had experiences like that. To follow God's guidance, we've had to leave the familiar for the unfamiliar and simply "go forth." When I left Hawaii for Biola in 1971, I was leaving the place I had called home for 19 years. I also knew that when I returned that Christmas it would never again be "home." It's encouraging to know that when we do this we're in good company. Think of Abraham. Or of the disciples when left their nets and followed Jesus. Or young Timothy going along with Paul on his second missionary journey. This passage reminded me that God's the potter and I'm only the clay. He's in charge, I'm not. Where he leads me I must follow.
You can think of it as taking a trip without maps. Or you can think of it as an absolute adventure. Either way, stop holding out. Become a risk taker for God today.