On Preparation

Unplanned things happen in life.  Just today, at a class I was teaching, one of the instructors met with car trouble and couldn’t make it to teach her sessions, so another instructor took her place with a mere half hour to prepare.  Because she had prepared and practiced the same sessions in the past, she was able to successfully teach them at a moment’s notice.  Life is full of stories like this, though not all with such a convenient ending.  Things come up, and hopefully, somebody will have what it takes to step into the gap and keep things going smoothly.  It is impossible to prepare for every situation that may arise, but today’s incident illustrated to me the freedom that prior preparation brings.  If you invest in the present with the future in mind, then when surprises come at you, you will be much more able to face them with confidence.

In 1 Peter 3:15, we are told to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have.”  We don’t know when someone may ask, but it is our responsibility to be ready at any moment with the answer.  As Christians, we have been entrusted with the truth, and the world needs us to be prepared to give it, not fumbling awkwardly for some response.  We cannot know exactly what questions will be asked of us, and there will come times that we don’t have an answer.  But if we have faithfully practiced the truth in our lives before the moment we are put on the spot, we will be much more prepared to step up with a confident answer – not a rote recitation of the perfect scripture reference, but a response born out of experience in God’s Word.  This is the kind of response our world needs, and we must consciously prepare ourselves to give it.