Plan & Prepare While You Wait; Be Aware What You Are Waiting For

Word-of-the-Day: ‘<Jesus said to His disciples,> (35) “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning… (38) It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. (39) But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. (40) You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”’ (Luke 12:35, 38-40)

It seems many things are occurring that we are waiting for to see how things turn out.  Iran has yet again bought itself some time with a proposal that might finally have something regarding giving up their nuclear material.  A bunch of primary elections across the country, including here in Florida for several state and national positions, are coming soon to determine the major and mid-term elections in November.  We are waiting to see what our next pandemic will be, as well – will it be Hantavirus or Ebola?  Both diseases are making headlines despite experts saying there’s nothing to worry about (I’m not wearing a mask this time, and I didn’t get the vax the last time, so that’s my thoughts on that).

I mentioned hurricanes earlier in a previous post.  We’re always waiting in late May/early June on when the winds start forming off the African coast, and while we hope none form that come our way as it was last year, we also are waiting for a low-level tropical storm to come into the Gulf of Mexico, er, America, and bring some good amounts of rain so we can get out of our drought and refill the aquafers (so those of us on wells can get water without the silt that clogs our water filters) without damaging those who live on the Suncoast of southwest Florida. 

Someone asked me the other day about my motto that I said often in the past but have let fade a bit recently, but I’ll share it once again, ‘BE PREPARED, BE AWARE, PLAN ACCORDINGLY’.  This is true in the event of natural calamities like hurricanes; stock up food and water, gas for your generators, and perhaps look at battery-operated lights and other devices to make things more comfortable should the power go out (as it is prone to do). 

Keep an eye on events; we can’t always predict gas prices but we can sometimes see possible shortages, like oil supply for your car or gas-powered devices.  Buy items that you may see turn into short supply now, so you have them when needed but not readily available.  Some of you had storm damage from Ian, we were trapped by the flooding it created.  Some may be in financial straits; some are having health-related issues.  Issues may come to us not of our own doing, but through political turmoil, social upheaval, or some other man-made calamity. 

Now we can and should prepare while we are waiting; test run your generators (if you have one) and service them (change the oil and clean the air filters), stock up on items like motor oil, food and water; start buying a couple of extra cans of veggies or Spam each grocery run, along with a case of water to set aside, and in a month or two you’ll have a week’s worth of extra stuff to carry you through a disruption of services. 

You need food, water, and shelter for at minimum one week should a hurricane or some other disruption occur, and remember churches and Chrisian-based organizations will normally have food drives in November so you can give away the excess if you need the room in your pantry or closet (or you don’t want food that is about to expire).  It doesn’t have to be overkill, but enough to get through the next natural or man-made crisis.

In the meantime, we wait.  For some of us, waiting is not a time we think to prepare or plan, but it is precisely the perfect time to do so.  Waiting for events without preparing for them usually results in anguish, stress, and panic when they hit.  Buying items while you wait provides much less stress than when the event suddenly comes. 

You can go to the home improvement store today and buy a stack of plywood without much effort and without a crowd; if you try to buy plywood a couple of days before a hurricane is about to strike, the plywood may be cleared out and the store is filled with panicked people grabbing anything they can get a hold of.  Grocery stores are stocked full until the weatherman calls for severe snow storms, then immediately people run to buy milk, bread, and lunchmeat – and the shelves are stripped bare long before the storm hits.  If you snooze, you may lose…

In a similar vein, in Luke 12:35-48, Jesus is essentially telling His flock to ‘BE PREPARED, BE AWARE, PLAN ACCORDINGLY’, for His eventual return to bring His bride, the Church, to be with Him for Eternity with our Father God.  BE AWARE that He could come at any time, not a time of our choosing but of the Father.  We are of course waiting for the return of Jesus to call His church to Him, but we cannot simply ignore what is happening around us or think Jesus won’t allow us Christians to experience hardships.

Since Jesus has made us aware that He will return, He has also given us this period of waiting, in order to BE PREPARED for Him to return.  Jesus used an allegory about the ‘thief in the night’; we don’t know when someone will try to break in our house, but we should PLAN ACCORDLINGLY that a thief could break in any evening, and on how he could try to do so.  We should plan on what our preparations should be; lock our windows and doors, perhaps install an alarm system or cameras, have a form of self-defense if we need to confront the thief, and be ready to call 911.

We should also take the opportunity now to prepare for Him.  How do you want Him to find us?  Are we engaging in His work, witnessing and fulfilling the Great Commission and teaching others His Gospel message and being Godly examples to others?  Or are we simply sitting around thinking nothing needs to be done and simply sit on our hands as we waste precious time waiting for Him?  Jesus wants us to act prepared and proactively, not react as unprepared reactions often miss or overlook key details, and are often done in panic and distress.  Planning is often the results of the initiation of preparing; what do I need to do to be ready for Jesus’ return?  Answering this question will draw you closer to Him and bring you closer in your knowledge of the Truth in the Bible and Godly practices.

Don’t sit back and expect that (little-t) tribulations won’t affect us; they can, they have, and they will.  Though we want Jesus to hasten His return, it may not be for several decades, centuries or even a millennium or two before He comes back – and it may not be in a time or manner we perceive.  ‘I don’t have to plan; Jesus will come and save me anyway’ is not a solution but a means of wishful coping that does nothing but increases the blows of the tribulations to your mind and psyche.