In season and out

I told you about the artist at the Sugarloaf Craft Festival who fielded my question about college and crafts by saying, "I would rather answer your question this way: The Lord Jesus Christ gave me the design for this chair."

I want to be like that man. That's what I call being "ready in season and out of season" (2 Timothy 4:2). There is no "off season." There is no time when I should be on holiday from inserting Christ into the conversation. I don't mean necessarily that the ninth, 10th, and 11th words out of my mouth have to be "Lord," "Jesus," and "Christ." But if I've got a seatmate on the plane for a three-hour flight, she should have heard the gospel before she goes off to the baggage claim.

What I am coming to realize is that I cannot turn on the gospel spigot suddenly from the "off" position. There has to be a perpetual flow of the Spirit through the pipes all day long---like the image in Zechariah 4, where a lampstand is connected to two olive trees by pipes through which there is a continual flow of oil to light the lamp. If you ever wondered what Jesus meant in John's gospel by "abiding," that's "abiding." You can't abide in someone any more closely than being connected to him 24/7 by a pipe (Zechariah 4) or a branch (John 15). It means you are never not talking to him or listening to him.

In other words, the readiness of the rocking chair maker to say to a strange woman at a craft fair "The Lord Jesus Christ gave me the design for this chair" is a readiness that has been happening some time before the woman ever walks up to his booth. If in the moments and hours before her approach, he has been wallowing in thoughts of how much he hates his mother-in-law, or what it would be like to hook up with the woman across the aisle selling leather handbags, he will not be ready. Nor if he hasn't read his Bible or prayed in a week.

This afternoon, a young woman student from the seminary came to my house to introduce herself. It soon became evident that she was looking at me as the "older woman" of Titus who should have wisdom for a younger woman. That's scary. No switch suddenly gets turned on when we hit 40, or 50. All destinations are reached by small steps. I want to abide in Christ now, in this empty room where I am all alone. The later, if someone comes up to me with a question about college or art or whatever, I can redirect that conversation like Jesus did at the well of Sychar. Or like the rocking chair maker.

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