Monday Morning Manna: Preaching in Season and Out of Season

Yesterday was Father’s Day. In spite of having had skin cancer surgery on my forehead on the preceding Monday and having spent the week with swollen eyes and nose, using ice packs for ten minutes every hour, taking pain killers on a regular basis, and sleeping with my head elevated, I preached my morning sermon. It was not that the congregation especially needed my sermon, but it was that I needed to preach on Father’s Day. When I was fifteen years old, I was involved in a Saturday night automobile wreck causing the second vertebra of my neck to be broken. The following Sunday morning, as I lay in a hospital bed, my Dad preached. Others sat by me in the hospital, but he fulfilled what he considered to be life’s highest calling. Some might disagree with his priorities, but I did not. I wanted him to preach that Sunday morning. (He was still preaching three months before his death, at age 84.) A few years after my accident, I would sense that same calling on my life. Over the years and around the globe, I have preached in some unusual places and under some unusual conditions, but I have always preached, when it was my turn. The Apostle Paul wrote to young Timothy, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2). So, I preached on Father’s Day. Whatever your life’s priorities are, if they are in sync with God’s calling on your life, do it: on good days and bad days; on healthy days and unhealthy days; in good circumstances and bad circumstances; “in season and out of season.”

Dr. Dan Crawford, Senior Professor at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, is the WestCoast Baptist Association’s Spiritual Life & Leadership Mentor. Follow Dan on Twitter @DrDanRC and Facebook www.facebook.com/dan.crawford.