This morning I read a post on Facebook from an old friend, old in
the sense that we went to high school together not old in the sense of age....
more on that later. In her post, she posed the question, "why do
most people say God is getting ready to do _________(fill in the blank)? You
mean He created man and still isn't ready? He is God. Is He not
ready?" She received a bunch of responses to this question and I
felt compelled to respond but it felt as if the "conversation" was
over so it gave me a good reason/subject/topic to blog about. While I
hardly feel like the authority on these types of things, I suppose I do have an
opinion that I'd like to share.
So, is God ready? Indeed He is ready! He always was,
always is and always will be.
I've always thought, that my life is
already written in the "Book of Life" and I'm simply living out that life. The
older I get the more I understand that in order for us to realize the blessings
that God has for us, we have to be ready to receive those blessings.
"Favor ain't fair" is another
thing that we as Christians always say and the clerk challenged me one day
while paying for my gas at Speedway. She challenged me in asking me
"what does that mean?" and I really had no answer for her. This
caused me to reflect on the meaning of this and consult my 1st spiritual
teacher and mentor, my wife, Chapri. As we volleyed this back and forth
we moved into the understanding together that this simply means that what God
has for me, he may or may not have for you. He blesses us according to
our individual needs/wants/desires/dreams/talents and because those are not all
equal, "favor ain't fair". Upon further reflection and
unpacking or the proverbial onion peeling, we are blessed according to our
readiness. We might all say that we want a million dollars ($1,000,000)
but many of us have not the slightest idea of the true worth of $1,000,000 and
wouldn't know what to do with it. Does that preclude us from being
"blessed" with it? I think not but it may not be my lot or
purpose in life to have that particular experience and the learning and
teaching that can come from it.
On just yesterday, I was working through
some Minute with Maxwell's by John Maxwell and one of the "word of the
day" postings that he expounded upon was "opportunity". By the way,
Dr. Maxwell is a profound man and great leader and you should check out his
work if you’re not familiar. Well, Dr. Maxwell shared that opportunity is
not opportunity at all for those who are not ready for it and if we wait for
the opportunity to come before we get ready for it, we're too late. That
said, we must always be growing and making ready for the future opportunities
that might come our way.
What also occurred to me is that the
message is delivered to people in the way that they need to hear it. A
"new" convert or baby Christian may need to hear that God is getting
ready to fix their mess in order for them to draw closer to God. This is
not spin in my estimation. This is simply "putting the cookies on
the bottom shelf" so that more people can get to it. That is not to
say, that they’re dumbing down the word, but it is making it tangible for more
people.
The other thing that occurred to me is
that this has the potential to negate our responsibility for
"readiness". It takes the burden of change off of our plates
and places it squarely on God's plate. If He's getting ready to bless me,
then I can just sit back and receive it. This could not be further from
the truth. As I mentioned earlier, if we're not ready for the
opportunity, it will surely pass us by. Conversely, if WE get ready and
prepare ahead of time, when the opportunity presents itself, we can the
advantage of it.
So, is God ready? Is He truly
"getting ready to _____"? I say it’s a matter of optics and
vernacular. He's already ready and what the saying should be is "God
is getting ME ready to_______".
