Ready?  Or Not . . .

When I was growing up, the kids in my neighborhood would sometimes get together in someone’s yard and play “Hide and Seek.” All the kids would hide except the “Seeker” who would close their eyes, count to some agreed-upon number, open their eyes, and then, at the top of their lungs, yell “Ready or not; here I come!”

When I’m outdoors seeking to photograph some aspect of nature, I often don’t know exactly what I will encounter. For example, I recently made a trip to Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina to photograph waterfalls, which I was able to do:

However, on one of the trails I hiked, I came upon an interesting moth:

But capturing the above close-up required significantly different equipment than I had used to shoot the waterfall. Over the years, I’ve found the best way to be ready for whatever photo opportunity I encounter outdoors is to carry all 22 pounds of my equipment on every outing.

I’m pretty sure you will not need a defibrillator when I tell you that, on the trail of life, it is not unusual to encounter unexpected situations, whether I am “Ready or Not.” However, unlike nature photography, I neither carry nor possess all the physical, mental, or emotional “equipment” necessary to handle the tsunamic events that can come upon a person without warning.

But I know of someone who endured being whipped, beaten, and stoned; was shipwrecked three times; was imprisoned; spent 24 hours adrift at sea; often went hungry; and on more than one occasion, did not have enough clothing to stay warm – the Apostle Paul. (See 2 Corinthians 11:23-27.) How did he manage to not only endure but also stay faithful through these difficulties? Better to let Paul speak for himself:

We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus
and present us to himself . . . That is why we never give up.
Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long.
Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on
things that cannot be seen. For the things we can see now will soon be gone,
but the things we cannot see will last forever.

– 2 Corinthians 4:14a, 16-18 (NLT)

From my perspective, Paul is the model of a person of faith who became and stayed “Ready!”   Not because of any special equipment he had, but because Paul had faith in and trusted God to help him see beyond the difficulties he encountered.