Ready: Prepared for Action

Advent{ures}: Let’s Go to Bethlehem

 

Be ready for whatever comes, dressed for action and with your lamps lit, like servants who are waiting for their master to come back from a wedding feast. When he comes and knocks, they will open the door for him at once.  How happy are those servants whose master finds them awake and ready when he returns! I tell you, he will take off his coat, have them sit down, and will wait on them. How happy they are if he finds them ready, even if he should come at midnight or even later!  And you can be sure that if the owner of a house knew the time when the thief would come, he would not let the thief break into his house. And you, too, must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you are not expecting him. (Luke 12:35-40 Good News Translation)
 
Preparing for Christmas is easy. Just do what I do every year; rely on traditions and expectations of the family and culture around me. Readying myself for Christ’s return is difficult. To be honest, most days, I’m not aware that His coming is imminent. My life is consumed by the present. I must confess the whole idea of being ready causes me to panic. Will I be ready?

I feel like Jesus is saying, “Ready or not, here I come.” Will His return be like hide and seek? Will Jesus find me hiding from Him or hiding in Him?


Therefore let all the faithful pray to you
while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters
will not reach them.
You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.
(Psalm 32:6-7 NIV)
 

Prepare: To Get Ready

Advent{ures}: Let’s Go to Bethlehem

 

In the multitude of my anxieties within me,
Your comforts delight my soul.

(Psalm 94:19 NKJV)

 

 
 


Fifteen days ‘til Christmas. Does this fact cause elation or anxiety? Will I be ready for the celebrating, the family gatherings and the gift giving?

How does preparing cultivate peace? What comfort can I find in the practice of getting ready? And my mind turns to the invitation to take a spiritual journey to Bethlehem. Do I have the right provisions? What should I take with me? What mental action should I take to prepare myself for the arrival of yet another Christmas remembrance? Why am I observing these days? What if, I didn’t? Would peace mark my days or would I be full of flurry and activity and subsequent worry?

So many questions invade my Monday musings. I am reminded in the quiet of the morning that carving out stillness matters. It offers me moments of silence that nourish a greater need. More than the need for getting the perfect gift or to create a peaceful atmosphere, I need time with the Righteous One. He alone is the one who answers my quest, who creates a hunger and thirst in me that only He can quench.

I recall from the writings of Isaiah that a voice calls out, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” This use of prepare has a nuance of turning, a facing towards. Underneath the words is a cry for repentance. Turn towards the way of the Lord. A resounding chorus of my ways are not your ways, or my thoughts your thoughts.

Turn your thoughts to Me. I have prepared a place of rest for you. I came as a babe, I am here in the Spirit and I am coming again. Soon. So get ready. Prepare a meal for us to share. Prepare for battle because the days ahead are treacherous. Prepare to meet your Maker. Prepare to be jolted out of complacency and into action.

Come, Lord Jesus, come!