Being Ready

I had the most amazing and serendipitous conversation yesterday.

My son and I stopped by his friend's house to pick him up and take him to our house. Hoping I'd have a chance to say hello to his mom, we both went to the door. (Holy Spirit nudge? You decide...)

My friend Cathy was sitting in her kitchen with a friend I hadn't met yet (isn't that the greatest potential in meeting strangers?), chatting over glasses of Prosecco. Friday night girls' night - yes!

I can't describe the joy and energy I felt when I left (2 1/2 hours later!) from being filled up and connecting in a completely unexpected but delightful context.

We quickly moved past getting the previously unknown facts of life out of the way - how many kids? What do you do? Does your son play basketball? Do your boys have girlfriends? Then the really good stuff started: Views about God, church, homosexuality, Jesus, marriage, divorce...

I sensed God guiding our words, giving me confirmation of previous conversations, and blessing our dialog every step of the way. These women encouraged and challenged me with their observations and questions about my faith and I got to share as clearly and powerfully as the Holy Spirit has ever allowed me to the values Jesus taught in the Bible. I wouldn't have even known to ask God for such an opportunity or such a blessing! And there it was.

And do you know what I thought about this morning, as I reviewed the verbal and relational bliss in my head? Building in Times of Peace! (I do think of it a lot...) How was I able to recount, with such spontaneity, the stories Jesus told? Where did the conversation come from in the first place? Obviously the Holy Spirit prompted and led the entire interaction. In addition, I was able to recall Scripture I had studied over the years. We were able to build on hours in the bleachers at wrestling meets our sons had participated in. Pick ups and drop offs and sleepovers.

I looked up some verses in relation to being ready for conversations like this. Take a look:

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:10)

"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." (2 Peter 3:15)

Build in times of peace! Be ready. Whether we are aware of it or not, people are watching and they are wondering how this faith in Jesus thing works. As we wrestle with it and allow God to stretch us, He will gift us with opportunities to explain it and live it out in unexpected places. And even if the opportunities don't seem dramatic or overly grand in scope, they matter. They matter because God is in them and He is doing His work, letting us participate in supernatural, kingdom-building, life changing and life giving work. We get to do that! How? By being ready for it and building proactively by knowing His Word and building relationships.

Please don't hear what I'm not saying. The real beauty of last night's encounter was in its spontaneity. And the fact that only God's Spirit could have orchestrated the combination of personalities and the timing. But there is an element of preparation that plays into it, too. Because we don't know what future glorious conversations await us, every act of present obedience is a potential building block for them! I want to be ready when they come. Don't you?