I must pray for the Grace to be early in my preparation for my God…
The other day I had an early breakfast meeting in the city. It was a big deal. I did not want to be late.
And that meant that I made sure that I set my alarm to ring at the appropriate time in the morning and I also made sure that I did not switch it off or let it snooze so that I would not accidentally miss the meeting. I also made sure that I was prepared from the night before. The house was in order, my bag was packed and I was prepared for the day ahead.
The night before as I fell asleep, I thought – with great excitement – about the next morning and how the meeting would unfold (clearly I do not have a very active social life).
In the morning, I made my way to the meeting, and made sure that I left home early and arrived early so as to avoid the traffic on the way. And as I settled in for the meeting, I could finally allow myself to relax and pay attention to what was going on.
And I have been thinking about this experience of being early for that meeting because it reminds me of the way I should be preparing for my God…
You see that morning was all about preparation. It was my responsibility to be prepared for the event and to make sure that I was organised so that I could not only get to the breakfast, but so that I could get there early and organised and able to make a positive contribution to the day.
And yet – in my preparation for eternal life – it seems that I very rarely organise myself to be organised or early. I spend most of my life trying to put off the idea that I will one day die to this Earthly life and need to face my Maker in the Eternal one. I put off the idea that I must be accountable for my actions. Instead of focusing on the Eternal, I spend all my time and energy fixated on the temporal. I spend all my efforts excusing my bad behaviour instead of modifying it.
While I spent time ensuring that my alarm was on and that I did not hit the snooze button when it woke me up for my early meeting, I never bother listening to the cues regarding my eternal life. Instead, I hit snooze and snooze and snooze on all the warnings and alarms of my life, and instead I pay attention to all the ways that I could try to get out of having any real responsibility for my own salvation and my own spiritual soul.
I spend my days band nights believing the fallacy that everyone goes to Heaven, instead of seeing it for the almost impossible privilege that it is – I say almost impossible because God makes it possible and it is possible by no other means than the Salvation of the Saviour…
And I have been thinking about this today, because it seems that I must pray for the Grace to be early in my preparation for my God…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.