The Spiritual Practice of Preparation

Episode 012 – Don’t Run Aimlessly. (Prepare for Where You Want to Go)

The new year is underway. 2019 is going to happen to us. Will our experience be good? Will it be bad? It’s hard to say because, honestly, most of this new year is going to be outside of your control.

But I can tell you one thing with certainty. Whatever your life will look like a year from now, it will look that way because of the time you’ve invested in preparation.

Show Notes

Show notes will not be a transcript. At least not now. You’ll find a few key bullet points, any scriptures references, as well as any other books or resources referenced.

• The new year is upon us. Whatever your life is going to look like a year from now, it will largely be that shape because of preparation you put in.
• Every great experience you had over the holidays, all those moments you loved best, relied on preparation from you or someone.
• Preparation is a spiritual practice. Not only are we setting up for what is to come, but we ourselves are changed in the process.
• Isaiah 40, the famous passage often taken as a messianic prophecy is really an instruction to prepare (Isaiah 40:1-5).
  • Valleys need to be lifted up. That’s filling in the low places.
  • Mountains and hills need to be leveled. That’s getting obstacles out of the way.
  • This prepares the way for the “glory of the Lord” to be revealed.
  • In your life, what valleys need to be lifted up? What hills need to be leveled? What obstacles are keeping you from experiencing God’s presence and glory in your life?
• John the Baptist preached to prepare people to experience Jesus. His message came with three ways people could prepare:
  • Repent – Simply put, this means take responsibility for your choices and actions. Admit when you’ve blown it. Acknowledge the dark stuff in your heart.
  • Be Baptized – Baptism, both in the Jewish and Christian tradition, is a marker of inclusion in the community. In the Jewish tradition, it was about turning away from those things that make you impure and would keep you out of the community. In the Christian tradition, it was about dying to the old life, and being raised to the new life which takes place in a new community. Life change happens best in a community committed to growth.
  • Bear Fruit in Keeping with Repentance – Our lives bear fruit automatically. Fruit is the natural result of our intention, motivation and choices. Warning: the life you have now is the fruit of your intentions, motivations and choices from the past. Good new: your life in the future is the fruit of the choices you are making now.
• You can prepare for growth by applying these three instructions to your own life:
  • Take responsibility for your choices and actions. Don’t blame others. Don’t play the victim card.
  • Become a committed member of a positive community that is focused on life change.
  • Practice making choices in keeping with the new life you are moving towards. This will bear fruit.
• Don’t Run Aimlessly.
  • Paul compares our spiritual life to running a race. (Ist Cor. 9)
  • His best advice for us: “I do not run like one who runs aimlessly.”
  • Know where you want to head, and then begin practicing life in that direction.

• A Contest? A Give-Away?
  • To celebrate our first 3500 downloads of the podcast, I’m giving away books to the first ten people who share this podcast on Social Media. Here’s how it works:
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  • The first 10 shares that I see, I’ll reach out to. I’ll need your physical address and I’ll send you sighed copies of my two books, Discovering Your Authentic Core Values, and The Wisdom of Your Heart.
  • If you’re international and postage would make it silly to send you physical books, I’ll work something else out with you!

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