Training for Tomorrow (Friday Devotional)

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

2 Timothy 4:2

For a baseball fan, spring training is like baseball Disney World. Every player, from the All-Star to the AA benchwarmer, is in uniform. Tickets to exhibition games are cheaper than those for the regular season. For autograph seekers, players are accessible and typically happy to oblige anyone who asks (especially kids). And most of all, there’s an atmosphere of newness and optimism that pervades the whole enterprise—during spring training, even perennial losers are hopeful that this could be the year.

But for the players, spring training is work. While grateful for the chance to get out on the field with their teammates and play the game they love, your average big leaguer (especially the veteran who’s been reporting to Arizona and Florida every March for a decade) talks about spring training not in the glowing, sentimental vocabulary of a fan, but the matter-of-fact terms of an employee. For them, spring training means sunshine and green grass and possibility, but it also means early mornings of film study, stretches, and drills, followed by an obligatory afternoon game that doesn’t count for anything. For a baseball player, spring training isn’t a time to dream about tomorrow, it’s a time to sharpen your skills so you’ll be ready when tomorrow comes.

For Christians, God has commissioned us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the responsibility of every believer to bear witness to His grace with both words and actions, and to make His glory known to the world. Starting with his first disciples, Jesus calls all those who follow him to become “fishers of men.”

But sometimes when we talk about this responsibility, we talk about it more like fans than workers. We dream about the possibilities of evangelism and we hope for brighter days for the church…but then we adopt the posture of spectators instead of players, cheering on the pros while we watch from the bleachers. We’re excited to be part of the effort, but aren’t sure we’re qualified or ready to put forth any effort ourselves.

In 2 Timothy 4:2, believers are called upon to be ready “in season and out of season” to share the gospel. Knowing and telling others about Christ isn’t something confined to one time or one group of people, it’s something in which we all need to participate. And that means sharpening your spiritual ‘skills’ on a regular basis—staying in the Word, praying regularly and intentionally, and being a part of a local church. Sharing the gospel isn’t just the pastor’s job…it’s your job too! So hop up from your seat and head down to the field—there are dreams to be dreamed, but there’s also work to be done.