Ready or not
We have all heard the saying, “Ready or not here it comes”. This is so true when winter is coming. It is going to come whether you are ready or not and it is up to you to be ready. This was my experience this winter.
The weather app was predicting snow. And it wasn’t just like 25, 30, or even 50% chance. It was predicting a 100% chance of snow and with an accumulation. We had known this for a few days. And I even said, “I need to get my studded tires on.”
Now I know for those that don’t live in snow country and mountains you may not even know what I am talking about but for where I live it is necessary. For me to get home, I have to either have studded tires or put chains on to go up to our mountain home. I put chains on for a few years but I have no desire to do that anymore. And I don’t even own chains for my car.
Yep, it happened
You know you always question and wonder if the weatherman is right. Are you going to trust what he says or just take your chances? Well, some people keep hoping for another day and don’t follow through with what really needs to be done.
The morning of the prediction I went to work as usual. No snow and the roads were fine. But when I came out of work there was a good 5 or 6 inches of snow on my car and I knew that meant even more where I live. I did have a coat and gloves but I was not equipped with boots (always a good thing to carry with you in case you can’t make it home and you have to walk).
The frustration kicked in as I started to clean my car off, knowing I would have to drive home with tires that were not fit for winter driving. The roads were one aspect but the worst was being able to drive up our long hill to our house. But I had no choice at this point. Thankfully I made it home without a huge amount of trouble.
It made me…
My experience made me start to think. We knew the snow was coming but made no effort to get prepared. What about Jesus soon coming? We know it is coming! We don’t know exactly when He is coming but we know it will happen. The same is really true of the snow. There may be a prediction but a lot of times they are off by hours and sometimes days. But we know the season and recognize the signs that winter is coming soon.
The reality is that we also know the signs of Jesus coming and it is at hand. Are we preparing like He is coming or are we too caught up in life to notice? We might even be ignoring it because we aren’t ready and we don’t want to take the time and effort at this point in our lives. I think we need to start rethinking our priorities, at least I know I do.
I didn’t get my tires on in time and it was a struggle to get home but I made it. But if we are not prepared when Jesus lays down His Priestly duties of interceding for us to come and get us to take us home and we are not ready, what a sad day that will be. I can feel that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think about it. But does it make us seek Him more? Are we ignoring the signs?
This hit home
For me this illustration God showed me hit home hard. It is so easy to get caught up in day-to-day life that we miss the signs or just plain ignore them. And it is so easy to get distracted by the things around us.
So what should we be doing? Should we be keeping up with all that is going on around us so we can “see the signs”? What about my job should I quit? Should I stop doing and living a somewhat normal life?
Although I don’t know whether God would want you to quit your job and do something different, one thing I do know is that we do have to keep living even though things around us may seem to be falling apart. I still had to go to work even though I knew it was going to snow, but I could have been prepared. And just like I should have been prepared for the snow I can be prepared each day for Jesus coming. We never know when our last day will be, we have to be prepared always.
Dear Father,
We know that Your coming is soon. But it is so easy to get caught up with all the things around us that we don’t even give You the time of day. Surround us with Your Angels that can keep back the one that wants to distract us. Prompt our hearts daily with your Spirit, helping us to keep our eyes focused on You.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
Come to the cross each day and surrender your life to the One who can bring you through.
Love you all!
Share a time when you should have been ready for something because you knew it was coming and you weren’t ready? What did you learn?