Be Prepared

(Originally written for Douglas County Publishing: Pastor's Meditation February 5, 2019)

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.  As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:13-16).
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander (1 Peter 3:15-16).

When I moved to Corsica a little over 4 years ago, I had never ice fished in my life.  I had heard about it.  I had occasionally seen someone sitting on a bucket or in a shack on a small pond.  I wanted to do it, but I knew absolutely nothing about ice-specific tackle, bait, poles, electronics, or even how to make a hole in the ice.  That was all about to change thanks to another Pastor Dan.

Since that first winter, I’ve learned how addicting this short season activity can be.  Each year my pile of equipment has grown, from just a couple poles, tip-ups, and jigs to include extra gear, a flasher (fish-finder), a flip-over shack, a small heater, an auger, and safety gear.  Starting last October, I’ve looked forward to going out this season. I haven’t gone as much as I’d like due to the weather, traveling, sickness, and work, but I’ve certainly enjoyed the opportunities that I have had to be out on the ice.  As most ice fishermen and women will tell you, the community of being with or around others is one of the best parts.

As much as I love it, ice fishing is one of the most preparation heavy leisure activities I can think of.  Making sure all your gear is in good working order and packed up; being sure to have enough warm clothing; charging batteries and making sure you have gas, if needed; having food, water, and other supplies—there’s a lot of work just to get on the ice and hopefully catch a few fish!  I’ve printed and hung a list in my garage that fills nearly a page with 2 columns of all my gear to check before I go out depending on whether I’m using my shack, sitting on a bucket, if I plan to make food, or fillet the fish I catch.

All of us go through various preparations in life.  The farmer prepares equipment and supplies ahead of calving, planting, and harvest seasons.  The nurse or the tech prepares the examination or surgical room as well as the patient for an upcoming lab, procedure, or surgery.  Most of us prepare or have someone else prepare our taxes to stay on top of those.  Maybe we prepare a lunch to take to school or a cooler and picnic basket to take on a trip.  All of this takes time, a knowledge of what is needed and should happen, and a willingness to adapt depending on how things go.

Scripture also talks about preparation quite a bit: the preparations that Noah made with the ark, his family, and the animals before the flood; the preparations of the Israelite community as they came to the Promised Land, for priests, and for the places where they worshiped God; the preparation that John the Baptist offered as a fore-runner to Jesus.  There are also preparations that Christians are still called to make in our own lives.

Prepare your minds for action…Always be prepared to give an answer…to give the reason for the hope that you have.  These passages in 1 Peter certainly call for our actions, the things we do, to be holy.  Our lives are to be in obedience to God rather than following sinful desires, ignorant to God’s perfect will.  But we’re also called, as we’re able, to have our minds and the understanding of our faith prepared. 

I said before that our preparation in various parts of life requires time, knowledge of how things are, and a willingness to adapt.  Peter uses 2 different words for being prepared.  In chapter 1, it means “to gird up” or we might say “to roll up our sleeves.”  In chapter 3, it has the sense of being “ready.”  In both cases, there’s an understanding that the life of faith, the life striving towards holiness and faithful testimony to God in thought, word, and deed takes some commitment. 

If we’re willing to be prepared in other parts of our lives, to be ready so we don’t fail, come up short, or forget things, shouldn’t we be even more prepared when it comes to faith and the mission of God?  The Bible speaks often about being in, meditating on, and telling to others the Word of God.  That means we must know what it says—whether by memory or having access to it, and we must be spending time in it.  We must be reading and studying devotionally, not just to know accounts and commands, but that God can testify to us about his will, salvation, and plan. 

Being prepared also requires us to spend time in prayer.  In prayer, we can bring our requests, concerns, and needs before God, but it’s also a way for us to praise him and to seek his grace in repentance.  We are talking to God, knowing he hears us and knowing he answers.  Our preparation for life, for being ready against the attacks of the devil, for being ready to do good when our sinful and selfish desires come up, for being to share the good news, requires that we have been spending time with God, talking to him as well as listening for his direction. 

Again, my list of things I need for ice fishing is pretty long.  But the list to be spiritually prepared is pretty short—be in God’s Word and be in prayer with God.  Yet, considering the importance of faith, salvation, and the work of God in and through our lives, these 2 things deserve more focus than anything else.  As William Longstaff’s hymn says: “Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord; abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.  Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak, forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.  Take time to be holy, the world rushes on; spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.  By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be; Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see” (Take Time to Be Holy). 

Be prepared, not just in spiritual-sounding ideas, but be prepared by God, his Word, and the testimony of his Spirit.  Be prepared, not just for church worship services and Bible studies, but for the holiness that God desires in all of our lives.