Ready in every season
Here in Pennsylvania, the seasons are clearly changing. The humidity is dissipating and is slowly being replaced by a cooler, crisper autumn air. Many from the area joke that this time of year in Pennsylvania, we could experience all seasons in just one day, as this transition from summer to fall takes place. The mornings are fairly frigid like winter, mid-mornings can feel like a pleasant spring day, hot afternoons remind us that summer is still hanging on, and the brisk evenings whet the autumn appetite for things like cider, football games, sweaters, and harvest celebrations.
Change in our lives is often experienced the same way. We can know that our situation is changing, yet still feel overwhelmed at how quickly it’s happening and the different moods we can feel in even just one day. If it’s a change that is especially difficult, trying to be prepared for it can feel very overwhelming. Yet most of those who have found success in life are the ones who have been able to embrace change – good or bad – and be ready for all it entails. These individuals are purposeful, convinced of the path they are called to take, and confident that that path will lead them to better things.
The other day, a friend introduced me to a new ministry in the downtown where I live. We sat down with the founder, who graciously took time to share her story and the vision she had for the ministry. This woman and her husband came from troubled backgrounds, but when they found Christ their lives changed forever. And they wanted to help others experience that same hope that comes through Holy Spirit transformation. Today, they are reaching out to people in all seasons of life. Those struggling with addictions can find help. Those re-entering society after a prison sentence find a warm welcome and hands willing to lift them up to a new and better kind of life. Those struggling financially find a warm meal, groceries, even a place to stay. The lonely find fellowship. The hopeless find hope.
The motivation behind such loving, helping hands, is hope. Hope is hard to hide. It changes a person from the inside out. When you have it, it’s hard not to share it.
When you know what is coming in the future and you have the capacity to help others, reality and hope move you to action. This action might be warning those on a trajectory toward judgment. This kind of warning is done with the utmost love and care, wanting those within hearing range to climb onto the path that leads to forgiveness and true life.
This was the motivation behind the apostle Paul’s instructions to his mentee, Timothy:
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.” (2 Timothy 4:1-2)
Can you hear the urgency in this words? The seasons are changing, but even in – and especially in - the difficult seasons of change, the Word of God must continue to be preached, for that is the Word that will bring hope and direction to people. Timothy needed to be ready at all times to preach this hope. Especially when people were ready to hear it. Because, as Paul warned:
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Like the planting of springtime and the harvest of autumn to the cold, hard, dead ground of winter – there will be seasons when people will not be receptive to the Word that brings life. Reminds us a lot of the current cultural season, doesn’t it?
Yet those who know this hope that does not change, remain faithful in all seasons to preach it and teach it in both word and deed. Even when it seems that they are making no difference, they may be making differences that they may just not see this side of heaven. And they are surely making a difference for their own destiny:
“But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store 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 4:5-8).