Ready! Set! God!
March 17, 2011
“To be forewarned is to be forearmed” is an expression I often heard as a child when a teacher would warn me to study for an upcoming test or when my mother would warn me to carry an umbrella to school because it was going to rain later in the day. The adults in my life wanted me to be READY for an upcoming event and not to be caught unprepared.
That adage has stayed with me throughout the years and is one I still often practice. I like to be READY. Recently, Cammy and I were invited to speak in a shore town in New Jersey. Wanting to be prepared, and wanting to find a good breakfast place to eat while away, and wanting to make Cammy happy since we both enjoy a good breakfast joint, I had done some “research” ahead of time. I found the top recommended breakfast establishments in the area, programmed their addresses into my Tom Tom and felt adequately prepared and forearmed for the day we would be on our own for breakfast. I was forewarned and forearmed. I was READY!
When the day to do breakfast on our own came, I confidently led the way by trusting in Tom Tom with all of my heart and I set out for the recommended place where the locals eat! Well, I wasn’t ready for the fact that finding it, even with the GPS, wouldn’t be so easy. How could that be? How could we circle the streets time and time again? I was forearmed! I was ready! I was set! All I needed to do was go!
My pleasure at being prepared was quickly dwindling after several attempts to find this cute, tucked away restaurant. And at the moment of despairing that all had been ruined for that day, that a good beginning to the day, which is a must in my book, had been tainted, Cammy reminded me of a few things. Did I mention that Cammy is a realist? She is and she did point out that it was a glorious morning, that we had an opportunity to sit on a balcony overlooking the ocean before setting out for breakfast, and that we could always find another place to eat if all else failed, and that the day indeed had already begun well, all was not lost! And just when she finished boasting of all that God had already provided, we found “Ready’s Coffee Shop” –yes- “Ready’s” obscured behind some trees on an adorable little street. What a feast of home-cooked fare with the locals we enjoyed! I had been forewarned and forearmed and I was READY, but I lost my way because I thought my attempts at being prepared were for naught, and that I had blemished a good beginning to a day that I had forgotten had already begun well in spite of being ready, and all set to go. It had been a perfect morning because rather than trusting in my own might to be Ready! Set! Go! I needed to trust in Ready! Set! God!
God wants us to be prepared and READY. He reminds us in Proverbs 6:6-8 to consider the ant who prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest. But He also wants us to go one step further. He also wants us to “Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it” (Psalm 37:5). He must really mean it because He says it again in Proverbs 16:3: “Commit your works to the LORD And your plans will be established.” Just forewarning you so you can be forearmed! (SV)
Ready for some more? Read Matthew 24:44 and be forearmed for the coming of the Lord!