BE PREPARED

1 Peter 3:15 “You must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.”

The motto of the Boy Scouts is “Be prepared.” Although it is not a motto that should belong exclusively to the Boy Scouts, we as followers of Christ must also adopt the value of preparedness. Peter reminds us as Christians to always be prepared to make a defence for anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you.

We will be voting in the local government elections this month and there has been fierce fighting among the different political parties. The nature of politics is to divide and set people up against each other for political gain. Some of us may become worried and concerned about the accompanying violence as parties campaign against each other. But we have a calling as God’s children to give explanations about the hope we have found in Christ. We also have to use this season to become witnesses of the values and norms we follow and endorse from our understanding of the Bible. We proclaim and believe that God holds the history in his hands and that we must work together to establish God’s Kingdom where we live.

We never know what tomorrow will bring. We never know when the opportunity might present itself to share our faith and our hope in Christ. There is so much hopelessness and despair in this world. Drugs are a terrible problem in so many communities and families. So many people turn to drugs and alcohol out of hopelessness. Funerals are often filled with a desperate search for answers. There is conflict in marriages where the relationship is left on the brink. Or a job is lost and people wonder how they will make ends meet. Many people suffer from different diseases without hope of a cure.

These are all everyday situations. Every person will confront grief, illness, conflict, or death at some point in their life. Some people will face those valleys in faith. Other people will face those valleys with hopelessness. If you are a believer you know that Christ will walk with you through that valley. Sometimes the person you need to share the hope you have, is yourself. It is easy to forget that Jesus is with you and that he is Lord of all.

But many times, you may need to point someone else to the hope you have. This hope is centred in the relationship with Jesus. When you share, do so with respect. You can’t make someone else believe. That is God’s work. But what you can do is to share your hope and share why you believe. No one can argue your experience because it is your experience.

May we live with hope, inspired by our faith, and ready to share with those God sends to us.