Preparations

I get excited about big days and big events in my life. I will sometimes lay my clothes out the night before in order to make the morning go smoothly. Many years ago, I decided to become a morning person. I love the quietness of the morning. I can read, pray and meditate in the quietness of the morning. I learned very early on that I could not be a “night owl” and a morning person at the same time. I can still remember my grandpa telling me: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy & wise”. I do enjoy my morning time with the Lord in His Word.

I came to the end of Mark this morning and I noticed something that I hadn’t noticed before. The ladies who went to the tomb to put the spices on Jesus’ physical body, prepared the spices the night before so that they could have everything ready for first thing the next morning. Check this out…

¹Saturday evening, when the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus’ body. ² Very early on Sunday morning, just at sunrise, they went to the tomb. ³ On the way they were asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” ⁴ But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside.

⁵ When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side. The women were shocked, ⁶ but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body. ⁷ Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.” (Mark 16:1-7 NLT)

I remember the Scout motto: “Be Prepared”.  I think it’s wise to think through the events of my day. I started working on the events that come first and knock them out, then move to the next one in line. If I have a 10 AM appointment and a 3 PM appointment, I prepare for the early one first and then the next one.  Believe it or not, I had to make myself consciously choose, because sometimes I like what is happening at 3 PM and I dread the 10 AM. The point is, I try to always be prepared for each part of my day.

The other lesson I learned when I’m prepared is that I can handle interruptions much easier. If I’m not in frantic, “prepare” mode just before something is due, I can navigate through the unexpected with a calmer spirit for sure. So today is the end to the business of 2017 and the new year is just around the corner. I have been preparing for a while now the events of the new year. When I’m prepared, I have more time to anticipate and that is part of the fun.

Pressing On!

Dwayne