Be Prepared

Be prepared.  It’s the Boy Scout motto.  So much of life is about the preparation.  It is often the difference between success and failure.  

Even in something as simple as preparing a meal – the organizing, buying ingredients, cutting, chopping, peeling, mixing – all done before you get to the actual cooking. 

In a career- the education, the thousand little things you have to do, “turn in,” and the knowledge you must acquire.  In my case, it was the reiteration of anatomy and physiology over and over throughout my years of schooling, enabling me to understand function in the human body, in order to understand dysfunction and be able to help people.  

I think about the time it takes to gestate a baby.  Nine months are spent preparing that little body and preparing our hearts and minds for the wonder and responsibility of caring for a new life.  

In preparing for a wedding – so many hours of planning go into the moment of the bride walking down the aisle and for the ceremony, which usually takes about 30 minutes or less.  

Jesus tells us over and over not to be concerned with temporal things but to focus on the eternal, and to prepare ourselves for that reality.  

He said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

One of the things we are all called to do as His followers is to “make disciples.”   What does that look in your life?  What is your sphere of influence, and what are you making disciples to?

I would suggest that we are all making disciples to something.  We could really believe in a product and be devoted to something we are selling, or to an activity or hobby that may be fun but really has no eternal value.  

If we see the world as our mission field, though, these things are just a means to an end.  For example, former UGA Coach Mark Richt saw football as a character builder.  He was more focused on building young men than necessarily winning games, although winning games came as a result of building character.   It was in the DNA at that time.  I believe he saw the Football Program as a way to prepare young men to make a difference in the world, to make disciples.   

Think with me for a moment about how God might have been preparing you for something.  How has He orchestrated your circumstances to get you to this very moment?  Can you see it?

What is that thing, in this season, that might be the culmination of preparation?  

Are you open to what He might be calling you to?

“Go therefore and make disciples.”

Be prepared.