Be Prepared In and Out of Season.

February 22, 2023

When Sarah and I look at this photo, we smile and shudder at the same time.

We’d made our way north to Vermont to check out covered bridges and moose. You may see a post in the future about our covered bridge experiences. Covered bridges were aplenty—moose, not so much.

We stopped at a small country grocery store and asked for the best place to find moose. I can’t remember the name of the store even though I have a picture of it somewhere in my photo files. The person behind the counter gave us pretty vague directions to an area with a lake. She said the moose liked to hang out along the water’s edge.

Stoked, we headed out. There were no signs for the lake or anything that said, “Stop here for Moose.” We just drove along these back roads, sometimes seeing water to our left, but not often. Most of the time, the drive looked just like this week’s photo. A gravel road with trees and underbrush on both sides.

We drove for what seemed like miles down this gravel road. We didn’t think too much about it when an old white pickup drove past us, coming from the direction we were going. Except, there were three large guys squeezed into the only seat of the pickup. I waved but didn’t get much of a response back. After another half-mile or so, we decided we had no signal on our phones, no idea where we were going, and no idea what would happen if we somehow couldn’t get back out. We turned around and as we were headed back in the direction we’d been traveling, that same white truck, with the same three guys were now headed toward us.

Cue the shudder.

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We passed each other and Sarah and I picked up our speed a little with one goal. Get back to civilization as soon as possible. We made it back to the highway and on to our next designation. We never saw the pickup again, but for a while we wondered where that pickup was going, as we hadn’t seen a sign of anything resembling a destination.

For now, I want to believe nothing would have happened had we had car problems on that road and the pickup happened upon us. They could have been very nice, helpful men. But it’s possible they were not.

Looking back, we were not prepared for whatever might have happened if it had been bad.

Paul gave his friend Timothy instructions on being prepared.

“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season;” (2 Timothy 4:2, NIV)

Paul wanted Timothy to be ready to preach “in season”, or in times of convenience. An application for us is to be prepared and ready to share the Good News or be a Christian support when we’re expected to. Maybe when we’re visiting people on behalf of the church. Or when talking with a friend we know needs to hear about Jesus.

Paul also wanted Timothy to be ready to preach “out of season, or in times of inconvenience. For us it may be those times we get a surprise phone call from someone struggling with a delicate issue. Or the topic of faith pops up at the Thanksgiving dinner, or while resting between pickleball games.

What do you do to be prepared in and out of season?