preperation

"we have to BLOG about this! i don't even have a blog!!...i'm gonna go ask for help. you put your cute face on." -kloe swartz

apparently kloe thought this a blog worthy event...so i'll trust her and go with it :)

last night one of my fave people kloe swartz came over from bremerton and stayed over at my house. we went and got coffee and went to citychurch and ate entirely too much random food. fun times. then today, we got in the car to go visit hayden kolb in her first week at college when i realized - oops! i need gas! 

now this is not an uncommon occurrence for me. i've been known to let my gas tank get down to negative empty before i finally get to the gas station. but i have NEVER run completely out of gas before. until today.

we leave my house and are on the way to the gas station when suddenly my car just turns OFF. i guess that's what happens when your gas tank is entirely void of fuel. who knew? but good news! we were at the top of a very steep hill! thank you Jesus! now the gas station we were headed to was across the freemont bridge and up another very steep hill. i knew there was no way we'd make it. but as my car came to a stop, i looked down to the bottom of the hill, and saw it - the gleaming yellow of the the shell station sign. glory!

we coasted down the hill, quite eventfully as i discovered i no longer had completely functioning brakes (why does EVERYTHING stop working when the gas is gone!?) and straight into the gas station where my car completely dies about 5 feet away from the pump. WE MADE IT! ...almost. 

this is the part where kloe exclaims "we have to BLOG about this! i don't even have a blog!!...i'm gonna go ask for help. you put your cute face on." she then walks into the gas station store and promptly finds an adorable young man who comes out and pushes my car up to the pump. what a gentleman!

all this got me thinking about preparation. it's what mark had talked about at citychurch last night and seemed to fit with what happened today. i so poorly prepared for the drive i needed to make today. i ran my car OUT of gas. completely empty. i kept putting off what needed to be done (filling the tank) and just tried to get by on what little i had until it DIED. it's a pretty accurate picture of what my spiritual life so often looks like.

last night mark talked about how it's important to value preparation as much as the value of the promise God has for our lives. it's like in sports or in school. mastering a subject or a sport takes practice. you can't just show up on the big day of a test/game and hope good things happen. or how about when we stay up all night studying that material for the test we've known about for weeks? the day before is not time to learn it, it's time to rehearse it. 

in joshua 3 and 4, God is preparing Joshua and his people to overtake jericho and lead them to the promise land. they've been waiting and waiting. and waiting. for years. some of them have died waiting. and now joshua tells them  to keep their eyes on the arch and follow it through the Jordan river - that God will show them which way to go and do amazing things among them.

all they want is deliverance. they just want what has been promised to them. and now they have to walk through the jordan river? this is not like a little creek or stream. this is a raging river with strong currents. the thing is, when we follow God's plans for our lives, when we zoom out from our own small perspective and admit that maybe God knows what He's doing, big things tend to happen. miracles happen in preparation. 

so they listen. the follow even though they have "never been this way before," and the river parts. THE RIVER PARTS. that's a big deal. it's a miracle. 

God has big promises for our lives. do you believe it? God has big things for your life. He does.

and the time in between now and when we reach it isn't worthless. it's preparation. time where He's shaping us into the person He created us to be. but what's important in the preparation isn't making sure we're perfect or fashioning our gifts just right so we look great to everyone else - it's seeking Him. remembering what He's already done.

what happens if i walk into my promised land of what God's made me to be and i've spent all the time before it separated from relationship with Him? if i haven't been talking to Him and spending time with him. if i wait until the day before so i can stay up all night cramming into my brain what i think is important. if i show up on the big day and just hope good things happen. 

how much will i miss out on? how many miracles have i missed in the preparation? how sad is that?

i don't want to let my spiritual gas tank get down to empty. i don't want to find myself surrounded by trouble with a small vision and empty gas tank completely stressed out that God's not going to come through. i want to march through the jordan river of my life with full confidence that God is not always safe, but He is always good and His plan is greater than mine. His route to my promised land is better than mine. and in the midst of it He's shaping me more and more into who i was created to be. amen.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.    Hebrews 12:1-2