Out Of Season
He tells me that German, being the efficient language that it is, has many meanings for his last name, Sonntag. I’ve taken to calling him “Sunday.” He is a friend of a friend (which has a way of making people friends) and we play Ultimate Frisbee on Sunday evenings. I’m the old guy in the group and he is the guy just about to get married.
Last night we were taking the “walk of shame” associated with the team who just got scored on when Sunday said, “I’ve got a question for you. So who in the world are Luke and Mark and why do I care?”
Sunday is beginning a self-motivated journey through the Scriptures and, recognizing the apostolic names of the other two gospel writers, wondered why the Church recognizes two canonical biographies of Christ authored by these “non-apostles.”
Experience has taught me that I have perhaps two sentences or twenty seconds (whichever comes first) to answer this question or entice another question before eyes begin to glaze over.
I cannot suggest boring people with long details about Pauline sidekicks and first-century historians in order to win friends and influence people. And besides, the other team was about to pull (kickoff), so I needed to finish before my lungs had no air available for talking.
“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season,” was the Apostle Paul’s instruction to his protégé. This was definitely one of those “out of season” moments.
I have two goals in these situations: first – make the person glad they asked me a question (because they will leave with valuable information), second – cultivate an environment that will make future questions an attractive option. If you think about it, it is kind of like the way you would talk to a friend . . .
What have been some of your “out of season” moments? When have people come to you with questions about life, faith, or the Scriptures? Did you feel prepared? Did you answer them well? Did their eyes glaze over? Did you talk like a friend?
June 30th, 2009 at 8:08 am
I fee prepared
June 30th, 2009 at 8:16 am
I’m glad you “feel” that way. Thanks for working out that MS Word bug.
July 20th, 2009 at 3:19 am
-I never feel prepared, I inwardly say a quick prayer that the right words will come.
P.S. you shouldn’t get no snarky with your replies to comment typos.
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:07 am
Carol, thanks for coming to my defense but I was joking when I typo’d in my comment because there was a bug in the blog that was making the L disappear. So in a sense, I was the one being snarky. So it’s perfectly fine.