Look to God and Live… Joyfully!

The second week of Advent focuses on preparation. The scripture for this theme is from Isaiah 40:3-5:

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

It must be understood that I consider myself a master preparer. My lists and timelines for my big holiday dinners are a thing of absolute beauty, while my vacation itineraries would melt the heart of any schedule-obsessive soul. Unfortunately, however, it was me that the great Scottish poet Robert Burns was speaking about when he stated, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

Despite my thorough planning, my holiday dinners have frequently been unique. For a few years they were more than an hour late. There was the year that in an effort to be on time I made the rolls the night before, let them rise for 24 hours, turning them into veritable hockey pucks. I finally did get the holiday meal trains running on time, but there still always remains a crapshoot of potential for disasters. What can you do when the sink backs up because you unthinkingly poured seemingly unrisen bread dough down the sink at about the same time the oven quit working on Thanksgiving? I could give you an evening’s worth of crazy stories about my big meal preparations not quite turning out the way I planned, but in the end there is always good food, congenial company, and a memory that will last.

My trip planning is another thing. One year (before GPS was commonly used) I printed out the entire AAA TripTik for the vacation and put it in a huge binder. I didn’t review it at all. Imagine our joy when the directions at one point read: “between one and two miles turn right on unnamed street and go until you turn right. Then turn left.” Uh… Yeah, we spent lots of time figuring that one out! And anyone who follows my vacation exploits knows that what looks good on paper doesn’t always translate to reality. The day in England when the day’s schedule included Portsmouth, Winchester, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Bath, and spending the night in Wales is the stuff of legends. The scheduled half-hour in Winchester turned into two hours; the hour in Salisbury turned into two; two hours at Stonehenge became three and a half; we stopped for a potential flat tire after that, got stuck behind a non-English speaking driver who couldn’t figure out the stick shift on the steep winding road to Bath and because of the language barrier couldn’t get the help they needed, and more; our five hours in Bath were whittled down to two – most of them in the Roman Baths and not seeing Jane Austen sites (for clarity, I am not bitter – just ask my daughter); and the GPS (which were finally had by this vacation) couldn’t recognize street names in Wales. We pulled into our hotel somewhere after 2:00 am. In the end, however, on that vacation and all others we ended up having a marvelous time with memories we will never forget.

I believe that on the road to preparing for the Lord our plans and our good intentions often get sidetracked. Our plans go awry, indeed. Trials, struggles, disasters, loss, or just change throw our carefully laid plans and off course. But preparing for the Lord’s coming doesn’t require a perfect path. It is Christ Himself who will straighten the crooked paths – we just need to traverse them.

We all know the Parable of the Ten Virgins – five of whom were prepared while five were not. I don’t actually judge the five unprepared women, for they probably got off course for a variety of reasons. I don’t blame those who didn’t share their oil, for they themselves needed it. We don’t know what painstaking paths they took to obtain the required oil for their lamps. I do know, however, that I’d rather be on the prepared side of the equation, for there is less explaining to do and less repentance to undergo. However, I fully get that I can set a strict plan for preparation for the Day of the Lord, only to find everything far more difficult, time consuming, frustrating, and painful than I had anticipated and made allowances for in my plans. I believe that preparing for the Day of the Lord does not, though, require perfection. It requires effort. Effort to be ready. I also believe that as we apply our efforts to fill our lamps – though our efforts fall far short – that the Lord then does the rest to fill our lamps to the requisite levels.

The other night I had an experience. I really mean that. It was an experience. At around 4:00 am one of the smoke alarms in the house started chirping due to low batteries, scaring both dogs. For Sunny that meant jumping to hide under the bed while for Toby that meant he needed to go out of the house. I keep slippers by the side of the bed so that I can use them while dealing with the dogs in the middle of the night. I didn’t put them on. Instead I wandered barefoot out of my room. I didn’t turn on any lights, thinking it would be easier to see which smoke detector was blinking and chirping. Anyway, I got to the back door and stepped in something wet. I prayed it was just water from the dogs playing in the snow. It was completely dark, so I couldn’t see, though. I opened the door and stepped aside and this time what I stepped in with the other foot had texture. HooBoy! With the heel of one foot and the ball of the other out of commission I hobbled my way to the light switch and discovered that Toby had been sick all through the house. I hobbled some more to get the stuff to clean it – and me – up. I got cleaned, and then went exploring to find the offending alarm. I could tell it was upstairs. I grabbed something that needed to go up there, did not put on slippers and did not turn on the hall light, and therefore didn’t see that Toby had been sick there, too. Yup! I stepped in it. I hobbled to get where I could clean up. Before you ask, yes – I did find the out-of-batteries alarm (the one at the very apex of my ceiling and virtually unreachable). Once I realized I couldn’t fix it I went back to bed, but obviously I had to completely wash my feet before getting back under the covers.

This may sound like a silly story, but the truth is that there were things I could have done to mitigate the situation. I prepared by having slippers and by having lights that I can turn on. I didn’t use them. The results were not fun. However, despite not using all the tools of my preparation I was able to be just fine due to the ability to be cleansed of the dog’s yuck. Next time I will know the risks, however, and not chance it. “If ye are prepared ye have no fear” has new meaning for me now.

In all seriousness, it seems that the world has gone a little crazier, the signs of the times are becoming more obvious, and the time to prepare is now. Prophets through the ages foretold the days of Christ and our days, as well. John the Baptist came immediately before Christ’s birth. We need to be watching with anticipation for the Lord’s coming, but while watching we need to prepare so that we aren’t caught off guard. As long as we’re doing our best the Lord will fill in all the gaps and our preparation – at whatever level we achieve – will be all that is needed.