PREPARATION

Leviticus 7:28-9:6; Mark 3:31-4:25; Psalm 37:12-29; Proverbs 10:5

“Then Moses told them, ‘When you have followed these instructions from the Lord, the glorious presence of the Lord will appear to you.’”

“Then he added, ‘Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given—and you will receive even more. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.’”

“It is better to be godly and have little, but the Lord takes care of the godly.  The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.
Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.”

A wise youth harvests in the summer,
but one who sleeps during harvest is a disgrace.”

Preparation is tough.  Especially for someone who bills by the hour and gets cranky over any inefficiencies.  Already, I find I am growing impatient with Leviticus.  (“Can we get on with it, Lord?”)  I knew this time would come and am only surprised it came so soon.  But then I see today’s Scripture; remember why I am doing this; and something reminds me that most all the best in life only comes with good preparation.

I have an interesting project right now.  It involves a lot of people and is entirely dependent on the vision of two or three leaders.  We have our Moses, and she is consummately prepared.  However, one of her Aarons is another thing entirely.  Last night, we wasted a ton of time watching this Aaron try to recreate what we had done before (without any memory or decent notes of his previous instructions).  Then, he tried to figure out what he had told us before, while everyone else tried to help.  It was truly like blind men describing an elephant.  Though well-intentioned, each of us remembered something different, and we just could not put it together.  It would have been funny if it had not been the end of a 16 hour day.  An entire night’s work was wasted.  I was a bit miffed….  OK, I was pretty darn mad.

So, of course, today’s Scripture is about preparation.  God always calls me on it when I try to lead without being prepared.  Today, I appreciate much more how the lack of any leader’s preparation is really a betrayal of trust.  It betrays the trust of those who need direction, and it betrays God’s entrustment of leadership.  The flock depends on the shepherd for good pasture.  If the shepherd doesn’t know where the good grass is, the flock is left hungry and unsatisfied. 

As Christians, we are blessed to have the Great Shepherd, who is always prepared, always ready to lead us, if we will follow His instructions.  We are called to lead others the same way, with the same level of preparation.  Godly leaders must be well prepared to effectively communicate both the vision and the way to get it done so those who follow can follow.  When we fail in this, we put the entire flock at risk.

Preparation takes time, perhaps the most precious gift of all, besides Christ.  I think I’ll go spend some more of it in Leviticus now….