Waiting, but Not Ready

I'm usually the first one up on the mornings our family is taking a trip. But somehow, I am also usually the last one ready. I say I'm waiting on them, but I get distracted and don't get 100% finished with my own preparations. Maybe I haven't yet showered, or brushed my teeth, or put on my shoes. So even though I'm early, I'm late because I'm not quite ready.

I drive an old car. I love it and enjoy driving it. It runs well and dependably in spite of over 200,000 miles of use. Other than maintenance, I've done hardly anything to it. It was a huge surprise a few months ago when I turned the key and it didn't start immediately. It made a single click and then did nothing. I tried again and it started immediately. So it wasn't the battery, it was the starter. Most of the time, the car would start fine. But increasingly, it would only click. And increasingly, it would take longer and longer for it to start. Occasionally, I'd even have to get out and tap the starter with a hammer. But money was really tight, and there never seemed to be enough for new starter. When it was time, however, to drive hours to another state, I knew I couldn't delay any longer. I knew I wasn't prepared for the trip. I could get stranded in the proverbial middle of nowhere. A long standing, long deferred need suddenly became urgent. I've been waiting for this trip for a long time, but I wasn't ready.

I feel the same way about the Church. I love the Church. I don't mind that many don't find it attractive in a trendy way. We are well worn, but built to last a long time. But increasingly, I have a sense of urgency. There is a road ahead of us that we are not ready to travel. The familiar ways that we have been accustomed to navigate are closing. The culture that has mostly been friendly to us is changing. No longer will that culture help us; indeed it is becoming hostile. We can't afford to "break down" in that neighborhood.

After 9/11, many people were saying, "This changes everything." There was an awareness that an era had ended, and a new one had begun. But that awareness seemed to be quickly lost, and for most, lives continued as if the old ways of understanding the world hadn't been outdated. Those who maintained the same assumptions about the economy as before have had a wakeup call. Savings depleted. Homes foreclosed. Whole industries decimated. It is as if there were a sudden temperature change from 35 degrees to 30 degrees. We'd been used to water being a liquid. If we stepped in a puddle, we'd get wet. Now, if we step in the same place, we'll slip. Or more apropos, we've been driving on a rainy day. The temperature falls below freezing as we're in the comfortable car and are totally unaware that the wet looking spot ahead is a patch of ice. Soon we'll be in the ditch and we don't have a clue.


We've been comfortable, and unaware of fundamental changes going on outside. For the most part, the world has been, at worst, neutral towards the Church in America and has even often helped us. In a sense, our culture (and government) has financed our buildings, programs, and staffs. We don't pay property taxes. Our contributions are tax deductable. There have been relatively few strings attached. But it seems likely that either those "subsidies" with cease or become leverage to force compliance to ways of acting and speaking that are clearly not Biblical. And then, what will we do? The level of giving will decrease if giving is no longer tax deductible. We will be unable to pay for buildings we have built on the assumption that giving would always increase, not decrease. Or if it's decreed that we can no longer proclaim Jesus as the only way to know God, or lose our tax deductibility status, what will we choose?

It is, I believe, inevitable that our favored status with the government ends. That is only the most obvious outcome of the changes already begun. It is not the most difficult. Ridicule will morph into persecution. Worldwide economic and political policies, unfettered greed and lust for power, and growing unrest among many groups could lead to unemployment and need and suffering that dwarfs anything most of us in the Western world have ever experienced. What do we do? Some will want to get involved politically. Do it, if the Lord moves you, but don't expect too much. Political victories do not change men's hearts. Others will want to stock pile food or invest in gold. Again, do it, if the Lord moves you, but food can rot and gold be stolen. These things can be blessing and provision, but they are not the answer.

Jesus tells the parable of the foolish and wise virgins waiting for the bridegroom in the night. All are asleep, and wake up when the message arrives that the bridegroom is coming. All begin to get their lamps ready, but five have no oil, no fuel. They were waiting but not ready. I think that this may apply to most of us. We are waiting, but asleep. And we are not ready. We have not learned how to depend on God rather than the world. We howl when a privilege like tax-deductibility is threatened, but remain silent when hypocrisy in our local churches demean the Name of God. We have not learned how to care for one another let alone lay our lives down for one another. When serious difficulties come, it may be too late to decide we were not prepared. We are waiting for Jesus to return, but not ready to live for Him now.

Matthew 25:1 "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. 6 And at midnight a cry was heard: 'Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!' 7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' 9 But the wise answered, saying, 'No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.' 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. 11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!' 12 But he answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.' 13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.