Preparation

Over the past week, I have spent a lot of my time looking ahead to events and activities coming up in the next few months. I have been looking at a youth worship event in November, Youth councils in March, and even EMASS 2013! With so much to look forward to, it can be very easy to rush ahead without taking the time to stop, reflect, and plan, which is what I have been doing this week.

As well as getting excited about these events, I have had to spend time thinking about how to get to these goals. Attending events like these, we can often not realise the logistics of organising them; the months spent preparing and planning, looking at what needs doing, planning for it, solving problems that occur, etc. and before all this having to plan how you prepare for the event! Without taking time to do these often boring and time consuming activities, events like those I mentioned would not run. Resources would be forgotten, the team would not be complete or understand the roles, vital information would be lost or mislaid, few people would attend, and the event would be a resounding failure. The ‘big visions’ of fantastic events with top notch worship, speakers, and activities that was first envisaged would not be achieved, as the steps needed to reach these goals would never have been put in place.

How often do we do this in our own lives?

Everyone has dreams of where they want to be in life. There are the big dreams; to be rich and famous, or make a breakthrough discovery, or climb mountains, travel the world, etc. and there are the small dreams; to find love, get married, have a few children, earn enough money, have a job you love, etc. But often, the dream and excitement of the future leads us to forget about the hard work needed to make those dreams a reality, leaving our ‘heads in the clouds’ and never achieving anything. We can get sidetracked by the ideas, looking at the beauty of the mountain but never making any attempt to climb it, expecting to somehow be transported to the summit.

Another thing we can do is rush ahead and begin the climb without preparing. Then, we hit problems and we can give up, finding the journey too hard, and praying that God will make the way smooth and just waiting for his response instead of following where he is leading or just accepting his support.

As I said, we all have dreams, but we don’t all plan and prepare. If you were going to climb a mountain, you would spend time looking at a map of the area to identify the best route, you would buy any equipment you needed, you would prepare a bag of items you may need on the journey (at least, I hope you would!). To reach our dreams, we need to prepare for them, planning our route, preparing ourselves as necessary for the challenges that may come our way. We also need to remember to pray that God will guide our steps and be with us as we journey.

While doing these things will not prevent things going wrong, or make the way easy, spending time preparing can give us the best chance of achieving our dreams. And when we do it with God, we will have continual support along the way, and he will help our dreams become a reality.

 

Trust in the Lord and do good;

    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Take delight in the Lord,

    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;

    trust in him and he will do this:

He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,

    your vindication like the noonday sun.

Be still before the Lord

    and wait patiently for him;

do not fret when people succeed in their ways,

    when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;

    do not fret—it leads only to evil.

For those who are evil will be destroyed,

    but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.

(Psalm 37: 3 – 9, NIV)