“…Be ready in season and out of season…” II Tim. 4:2
Ours is not to decide when we will be most useful to God. As if we trafficked in that kind of omniscience in the first place. Ours is to “be ready”. The word Paul uses here was used in Greek literature to describe a soldier “staying at his post”. The soldier of Christ is to stay at his post, to simply remain doggedly faithful to the present task at hand. And then Paul adds the intriguing phrase “in season and out of season”. This probably has the thought of “when it is convenient and when it is inconvenient”. But it also points out a critical truth concerning usefulness and ministry.
Our calling is not to recognize the time of our usefulness, but to just keep showing up, showing up, showing up. Showing up to love God with all of our being. Showing up to love the brethren on good days and bad. Showing up to reach out into a needy broken world with the love of Christ regardless of how we think they will respond. Showing up for daily, routine, unglamorous faithfulness in our homes and at our jobs. And it is in the pathway of just daily, hourly showing up that God uses His people in ways far beyond anything they might imagine. The poverty-stricken widow just showed up, faithfully deposited her meager two mites, and went her way (Lk. 21:1-4). Could she possibly have known the influence her showing up would have for the next 2,000 years? The publican just showed up. In brokeness and humility prayed, "God, be merciful to me, sinner." (Lk. 18:13) Could he have possibly known the ways God would use his showing up and prayer over the next 2,000 years? Of course not. And neither do any of us know how God is going to use our most common, seemingly insignificant steps to love Him and influence others. What we do know is that God delights to use His people when they least expect it. When all they do is show up.
Someone has well said, “Satan doesn’t care what we do for God, as long as we do it tomorrow”. So, so true. And one of his most deceptive strategies is to get us focusing on our usefulness in the future so as to distract us from our usefulness in the now. That way myriads of opportunities for present impact are forfeited while we concern ourselves with how God is going to use us next. Fact is; none of us really has the foggiest idea how God is going to use us next. Far, far better to stay dialed in to this day, this hour, this moment. It is, after all, the only time frame we are guaranteed.
