I’ve just returned from a week in Bulgaria. It’s one of my favourite places and I’ve been going there since 1990. Some of my closest friends live there, some of my best memories have been made there.
Several years ago we played a part in starting a youth event that has now become a national youth movement called New Wave (https://camp.novavalna.org/)
A few weeks ago my friend messaged me with what he wanted me to speak about at this years event, his message read….’are you really?’……
Hmmmmm I thought, that’s a strange title then it dawned on me he meant ‘are you ready?!!’
(the joys of predictive messaging!!!)
Almost right away I sensed that the answer to this question, ‘are you ready?’ is actually ‘no you’re not….but you can be ready enough!’
Who is really ready anyway?
I wasn’t ready when that woman in white walked down the aisle towards me….
I wasn’t ready a few years later when that same woman was crying in pain as that little human was emerging from within her and then I was handed this said tiny human that I was now responsible for…
I wasn’t ready when I stepped into Church leadership, I wasn’t ready when we faced life altering news from the doctor, I’ve never really felt ready when the challenges of life and leadership seemed greater than the resources I felt I had.
I wasn’t ever really ready….but I was ready enough…
Think about it this way, were any of the people that God used so amazingly really ready?
Moses standing on the edge of the Red Sea facing ‘impossible’ circumstances, Gideon standing in the middle of a wine press churning out excuse after excuse evidencing his lack of readiness for what God was asking him to do.
Deborah, a woman in a man’s world, Esther a beauty Queen in a tyrants palace, the disciples looking around for Jesus who told them he would be with them for ever but then was gone….
None of them were ready….but they were ready enough….and so are you….
You see what I’m learning more and more is this, when God calls you He also makes you ready..
The classic quote is true, ‘God doesn’t call the equipped, God equips the called’
He does the calling, He does the equipping, He does the empowering, He does the transforming, so what do we do?
We make sure we are ready enough…..
Was David really ready as he delivered the cheese sandwiches to his brothers on the battlefield that day? No but when he heard the threats of the giant Goliath, when he saw the fear and terror in the army of Israel, when he realised the name of the Lord was at stake, something shifted inside him and his ‘ready enough’ kicked into gear…
How do we become ready enough?
David’s heart was ready because he intentionally focused on God when there was no stage and no public giant to face….he made sure his heart was healthy and whole… how’s your heart doing these days?
David’s character was ready because he had fought the private battles, the lion and the bear came before the giant….the biggest battles we ever face are the private battles….how are you doing with your private battles these days?
David’s courage was ready because the moment that presented became the moment he accepted….ready enough people hear what others don’t hear, they see what others don’t see, they think what others don’t think and they do what others merely talk about doing…how is your courage these days, are you running towards or running away?
David ran towards the giant and the rest is as they say….history…
Was he ready? Or was he just ready enough?
My prayer for you and me is simply this….
May we guard our hearts, may we posture our internal lives, our thoughts, desires, will in such a way that when God calls or the moment requires, we don’t run from it but we run to it!
May we live life on the front foot not the back foot…and may we be ready enough…
‘….when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?’”
Luke 18:8 NIVUK
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