Are You Ready?

Are you ready?  “Ready for what?” you might ask.  My usual reply might be “Ready to meet Jesus?”  At which point I get one of those “What are talkin’ ‘bout?” looks.  To which I would reply, “Do you think you’ll live to see tomorrow or even this evening?  Do you have a crystal ball that tells you when your time on earth is done?”  I’ve noticed that some people shy away from me when I make this scenario part of an idle conversation.

But today, I’m talking about when you’re called to do something God wants you to; are you ready. These past few months we’ve been trying to make preparations for a couple of events.  We’ve been calling and asking for support in many ways.  We’ve left messages on home phone machines, placed info on FaceBook, even in the newsletter and even when we ran in to each other in and about town.

Some of the responses are, well, disappointment.  Messages left not to be called back, I’m sure we left the right number.  And we too have a machine to leave messages on when we’re not at home.  I’ve even checked out our email account and I’ve been assured that everything is working properly.  Even if the computer thought a reply message was spam, I manually look at each message before clearing the messages from the spam folder.  But something isn’t working like I thought it would work.  Maybe I should break out the instruction manual and do some more reading; always the last option right?  I think it’s a guy-thing.

When the response to something expected doesn’t come, especially when you have given yourself to God to do this work, you’d think that God is touching other people to, to do this work, because one or even just a few can’t do this task we’re being asked to do.  So you start thinking, “I’m doing my part, how about everyone else that you want involved, huh God? Is this some practical joke just to spin us up and cry out to you in prayer?  Or even worse, some might get so upset they just don’t want to “play” anymore?”

I’ve seen and felt this way many times in the recent past.  “This is a waste of time.  I have other things I could be doing with my time and resources.  I’ve had it, I’m done.”  But then my dear wife will calm me down and ask, “Have you been reading your Bible lately?  Sounds to me like your Bible intake is low.  You might want to get that checked out.”  I guess that’s why I refer to her as my help-mate sometimes.

So back to the original question, when God calls for something that will further His kingdom, “Are you ready?”  Or do you say, “Gosh, I’ve got some things going on right now.  Call me the next time you do this.”  Or “Bad timing, I just don’t have room on my plate for anything more.  Sorry.”  All valid replies, but if everyone is already doing “God’s Work” on something else, why are we being asked to do even more than we have time for?

“Okay God, now what, I’m waiting and I’m ready… now what?”

GLYASDI ~ Rocky