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Be Prepared

Our youth leaders (LOHF) went on a retreat this past weekend. We stayed at a church in Cochrane where we had brainstorming sessions and a lot of good fellowship time. One of our activities we did was to go hiking in Canmore. After much discussion we ended up going to Grassi Lakes just outside of Canmore.

Now if you know me, you know that I don’t have the best knees, nor am I the smallest and most fit person in the world. That being said, when we reached the base of the trail, I discovered there were two options: the easy route or the “more difficult” one. Everyone took the more difficult route expecting me to take the easier one.

Not wanting to “cop out,” I decided to take the more difficult route as well. Needless to say, calling it the “more difficult” route was very true. After a few breaks to rest, and about 30 minutes after everyone else, I finally reached the summit to where the lakes were. The group was excited. I was excited that the STARS air ambulance didn’t have to be called in! Thankfully, we descended down the easy route, a fairly flat slope back to the start. My trial was over!

But sadly it didn’t end there. That night, I woke up with the muscles in my thighs wanting to twist into knots. The pain was excruciating! Now, two days removed from the event, my legs are still very sore. I wasn’t prepared and paid the price…

In the Bible, there are many different verses that speak about the importance of training in the Christian life. In fact, we are called to prepare ourselves for the challenges life presents.

Looking back to when my children were younger, I discovered that they get a mind of their own pretty quickly. We can look back at the “glory days” when they were cute and cuddly and the only time they cried was when they were hungry or needed a diaper change. But there came a point when things changed. Suddenly they had their own agenda. They wanted to do things their way and challenged parental guidance.

So why did things change and started behaving this way? As children grow and mature in ability, this leads to a desire to act on them. But part of that is training. Like any athlete, tradesperson or professional, we need to learn. A child needs to be shaped by parents who will help him/her. They may not appreciate the boundaries, the instruction and at time, the discipline, but we know it all served a purpose to teach and train. And as they get older, they often know it came from love and that is why we did it.

In the same way, we are growing in gifting and calling as we walk with the Lord. We were created to be mature, responsible, accountable people who operate freely and powerfully in the gifts and abilities our loving Father has given us. But we too need guidance, boundaries, discipline. We must strive to know God deeply and to understand His direction for our lives. We must love His discipline and accept it humbly. Because He knows what’s best for us.

But how many of us are feeling discouraged or frustrated about your gifts and your calling today? How and when will I be used, Lord?! Let’s lay it all out before the Lord today…our gifts, our abilities, our desires. And let’s ask the Lord to tame us and to shape us for use in His Kingdom. He wants to use us but we must be made ready for His use! There’s so much work to be done!

The writer of Hebrews tells his readers, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Life is not easy but as we grow in our relationship with God, He will prepare us to face the challenges ahead.

So looking at the pain I am enduring today, what did I neglect before my hiking expedition which led to me suffering so much? In trying to climb that mountain, Was it my conditioning? Was it my size? Those contributed, but the biggest reason was I had neglected to stretch out my legs prior to ascending up the trail. Preparation and training are needed for every aspect of our lives. Whether it is hiking, school, our jobs or any aspect of life, we need to prepare ourselves for what lies ahead.

Like life, we have resources we can use to prepare ourselves for the challenges we face. For Christians, those resources include the Bible, God’s Word; Prayer, our direct line to our heavenly Father; and each other for support and encouragement. If our desire is to meet the challenges in life head on, we need to be prepared.

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