Out of season…

2 Timothy 4

 ¹ In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ² Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³ For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴ They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ⁵ But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

About a month ago, a gentleman emailed me to ask if I could meet with him.  His email said that he was a struggling entrepeneur and that he wanted to find out from me what I thought he may be doing wrong.

I am by no means famous.  I haven’t been on CNN, I’m not a motivational speaker, I don’t give lectures, I don’t attend huge city events, and honestly if I was standing in the middle of a crowded shopping mall, unless I ran into a family member, no one would be able to single me out for any reason whatsoever.

My response to this man was, “I’d be happy to meet with you, but how do you know me?”  He said that he really didn’t know me.  He ran across my profile on one of the social networking sites that I use to stay connected to family and friends, and although he had visited one of my retail stores in the past, that was his only exposure to me.  So we scheduled a time to meet with me really not knowing too much more than the fact that he wanted to come speak with me.

Two weeks later, when the date of our meeting arrived, I was having one of those days.  When you oversee the operations of a couple dozen entities, you have days where everything goes right or everything goes wrong (seldomly in between…there very few days where I go home to my wife to say that I had an ‘ok’ day; most are either fantastic or terrible).  The day of our meeting was one of those terrible days.

When the gentleman arrived, I was in the middle of a phone conversation where I had to put out yet another fire.  Having no secretary to assist, he sat down at the table across from me while I finished up a very heated phone conversation.  When I was done, I apologized to him for the delay, and of course anything that he may have overheard, shook his hand and asked him how I could help him.

He didn’t give me much to work with, when he said, “I want to hear about you.”  I mean, I set aside an hour for this meeting and that sentence alone could create a conversation that could last for three weeks.  I assumed that he wanted to better understand what I did, how the opportunities to do these things showed up, and how I balance everything that I do with my other priorities.  That’s where I began.

After making sure that I spoke enough to give him a decent understanding of where I’m at, I asked him what it was that he did.  He said that he already thought he got his answer.  Now I was really confused, so I had to ask him what he meant.

He told me that he came to me because he works in real estate and is struggling to make a living.  In the area where we live, the economy is terrible, and he had made arrangements to move to a larger city to try to make a living there.  I told him that I definitely understood his situation, and there were a couple suggestions that I could make for his transition.  Before I could speak further he said, “you already did.”  Of course I asked him how so.

At one point in giving him my background he asked a very small question.  He said, “You do so many things in so many places, and are obviously very successful.  With that being the case, why do you choose to stay here?” 

I told him that I believed that I was supposed to be here because this is where I’m connected.  I said that my family is here, my church is here, I have key relationships here, and I figure that if I can survive and adapt to very tight economic conditions in a harsh environment here, I can do it anywhere. 

My answer wasn’t all that long or detailed, but in our discussion it was key and is really founded on two distinct components – relationship and placement.  Where I am currently, I have solid Godly relationships, and I’m in the proper place for the Lord to give me favor that causes me to be successful.  It really is that simple. 

I discussed with this man the power of relationship and place.  I didn’t pull out a leather bound Bible to start flipping pages to preach at him, but I did use biblical principles and teaching that I have applied to my life over and over again to connect with him.  After several examples of how this had proven to be beneficial in my life, the man thanked me for my time and left.

Since that meeting, I have received several emails from my new friend telling me about how his situation, and his life in general is changing for the better as a result of our conversation.  I’m very pleased to see that some of the things that I said are having an impact in his life.  I think back to the day that he entered my office and how important it was to him that I took the time to meet with him for that short period, regardless of everything else that was going on in my world that day.

It really does pay to make sure that you’re prepared as 2 Timothy says, “in season and out of season” because others may be counting on your words to expose how God can alter their life.