Preparation - It's often painful but well worth it!

Do you remember the spoiled girl in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory who wanted the goose that laid the golden eggs?  Veruca Salt was her name and I can still hear her yelling, "I want it NOW!"  Then there is this obnoxious commercial for a company that pays people a lump sum (much smaller of course than what they are entitled) for a settlement they would have received over time.  Person after person yells, "It's my money and I want it NOW!"  Cell phones, text messaging, satellite radio, Ipods, and WIFI have bred a generation of Americans who have the desire for immediate gratification.  We want it now.  The problem is that we don't necessarily want to do the hard work necessary to achieve much of what God really wants for our lives.  

I was at breakfast this morning with my ministry partner (doing church) when a really powerful analogy come to us. As many of you know, I am heading to SW Colorado to hunt Elk in September.  I am 46, live near sea level, and up until November of 2009 was a wee bit overweight.  I hadn't shot my bow in a few years and couldn't  keep a group of three arrows within 2 feet of each other at 40 yards to save my life.  I got winded when I gave my 50lb eight year old son a piggy back ride up the steps to his room and I wasn't at all prepared to carry a 50 lb. backpack up hill and hunt Elk with a bow at an elevation of 11,000 feet.  Sure it would be really great if I could fly out there, strap on the backpack, run up the mountain, chase a big bull elk, shoot with the accuracy of Robin Hood, an all the while feel like I was lying at the poolside in a fine resort.  But guess what?  This boy was unprepared. So what to do?

I needed to loose about 20 lbs., get in shape cardiovascularly, tune my bow, practice my shooting from different distances and different angles.  I needed some new equipment. I filled my pack with 55 lbs. of weights, strapped it on, and walked for miles and trotted up and down the nearby ski hill.  It was miserable.  I was hot, tired, sore, and stiff.  I had to spend time on the treadmill, in the gym, and in the backyard with the bow.  I had to break in a new pair of boots walking for miles on humid 90+ degree days while my family swam at the neighbor's pool.  You can't just go from ground level to the top of the mountain without preparation.  I think you get the idea.  

In the same way, I think, we as Christians want to have all the benefits, be fed spiritually, be lifted up emotionally, and find forgiveness but aren't willing to do the hard work, endure the suffering, or sacrifice the time we set aside for fun and pleasure in order to be all and do all the Lord has called us to do.  I know this for a fact because I do the same!  I want to be spiritually mature, strong in my faith, morally solid, and bold in my proclamation of Christ but I am not always ready to do what it it takes for that to happen.  Prayer, time in the Word, gathering with brothers and sisters to worship, enduring ridicule or loss of "friends" because of a boldness to speak the Name of Jesus.  Many of us are willing to invest an hour or to a week and maybe a few minutes each day to talk to God but there is no way we will see the summit of what God wants for our lives if we live this kind of Christian life.

We often think that immediately after Paul encountered the risen Christ he was all ready to do the work God set him apart to do.  We often see his powerful ministry in a condensed, Reader's Digest way.  Sure he was excited and filled with the Spirit and proclaimed Christ from the outset but his ministry did not happen overnight and without pain.  Galatians chapters 1 and 2 tell us that he went to Arabia for three years before he met Peter and James then another fourteen years passed before he returned to Jerusalem. Paul was stoned, beaten, flogged, and endured much suffering as I have pointed out in other posts but he also just plain spent time with the Father.  He knew the Word.  My son reminded me this week of a verse that is SO important and reminds us of our need for preparation, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." (Psalm 119:11)  How do I keep myself from sinning?  Hiding God's word in my heart.  How do I do that without being in God's Word.

The last component of this isn't what we do but what God has to do in us.  Sometimes it's just time, plain and simple.  We just aren't ready yet.  We can't run until we walk.  We can't chew meat until we have teeth.  We can't write a novel if we haven't learned to read.  God sometimes just has to bring us through some stuff, strengthen us, build our faith through suffering, teach us some things about him and about ourselves, and prune of some dead useless things from us before we can climb higher up the mountain.

Peace in Christ,

David