How do you get ready for a World Race? I can't think of how many times and ways I have thought of this question. You can buy all the gear, read all the blogs, even raise all of the money, but how do you really get ready? .Well we have all seen the W.W.J.D bracelets at least some point and understood it, but is that all there is to it? Is it just what Jesus would do in any given situation? That is what brings me to W.W.J.M. What's that? Glad you asked it's quite simple but genuinely profound, What Were Jesus' Motives. This was brought to my attention by a man named Jonathan Dodson. At first when he said this it didn't make sense to me. Then one day it struck me what were Jesus' MOTIVES. Sometimes I get so caught up in the things it "takes", if you will, to be a Christian, Bible studies, small groups, tithing and things of the sort. I forget what it MEANS to be a disciple of Christ and why we do the things we do. Jesus many, many, many times declares His unwavering faith in the Father's plan and the love that is given for the Father, from the Father in ALL the things He does. In John 17:25 (ESV) Jesus said "O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." Powerful stuff. It wasn't what He was doing, it was why He was doing.
In my unending task to gather the right gear, raise the appropriate funds or just plain imagine what it will be like, I forget to hop in my "spiritual DeLorean" (if you have ever seen Back To The Future, you know what I am talking about) and return to where it all began. Jesus Christ and His Gospel. It's easy to forget that I need the Gospel just as much as any non-believer out there. I blow past it in my haste to move on to more advanced doctrine, when the Gospel never expires. It is the healing and renewing that Christ gives for free. We need it too.
So how do you get ready? Feels a bit like I haven't answered that yet and I don't think there is a true answer, but I do believe that I must evaluate myself from the inside out. I have been told by a friend "you can't fake what you don't have" referring to identity in Christ. Once again this took some time to set in but when it did it set hard. I realized I can't give the love of the Father if I don't allow myself to receive the love of the Father. Jesus fully understood the love of God and all of His glory. With that He glorified and made known that very name. Even though His work was soon to be done on earth as a human being He vowed to continue to make known the Fathers name. While I will never be able to understand these things fully here on earth I must allow myself to be taken in by them so that they pour out of me from the Father to be given to everyone. So my answer in short is…love. I get ready by and with the love of the Father filling me to the brim ready to be given to all with no exceptions.
