I need to start out this blog/journal entry with a disclaimer that nearly all of it I’m stealing from a devotional that a friend sent to me that came out of “Draw the Circle:  The 40-Day Prayer Challenge” by Mark Batterson.  It was given to me at a time in my life when it really spoke to me. The excerpts from the devotional are further towards the end.  

The devotional twisted the adage: ready, set, go into go, set, ready.  He stated that the sequence emphasizes the importance of preparation but then told us it is backward.  The problem is that often when we are called to do something, we will never be ready, and we’ll never be set.  Sometimes we just must go for it.  The sequence of faith should be:  Go.  Set.  Ready.

I was never ready to get married.  We were young, in college, netted about $800 a month in income, had nearly no assets to our names, and were not sure what our plan was.  But we were both strong Christians and believed without a doubt that The Lord had brought us together and it was the right time to get married.  

We weren’t ready to have kids.  We had just taken on our first big debt of a mortgage, Shane was in Seminary and was only working VERY part-time, and I had a full-time stressful job…We’ll be ready when Shane is done with school and settled into a full-time job we thought.  God had another plan 🙂

I wasn’t ready to walk away from my accounting career.  The burden the Lord had placed on me was so strong though, I had no other option.  I had no experience or training in anything else yet and it took a year of “wandering” before the Lord revealed His plan to me. Man am I glad I stepped out and quit that accounting job!

I was not ready to care for children that had unique needs. Savanna had severe food allergies and oral issues that left her refusing to eat ANYTHING until she was around three years old.  She had many other sensory issues that left her throwing insane temper tantrums several times a day and daily vomiting that I thought would never end.  For three years my world revolved around occupational therapy, feeding therapy, and speech therapy.  Convinced that the second child would be easier and I would be “ready” for another, I was instead greeted by Conner, who came with his own unique set of challenges. 

We were not ready to take on the burden of a much larger burden with the cost of building a larger house. We had a desire to have space for kids that needed it so we stepped out and God never stopped providing exactly what we needed.

I was certainly not ready for adoption. This is in hindsight because I thought this was something I WAS prepared for. I felt the pull to do it, took the classes, read the books, and had more love in my heart for these kids than I knew what to do with. It didn’t take me long to realize I was not financially, emotionally, or spiritually ready for it.  I’m now, for the most part, “on the other side of adoption,” in that those kids are now grown and gone. And holy heck was that a RIDE I was NOT ready for! 

Last year I published a book. That was crazy! I knew nothing about publishing a book and was a ball of nerves hitting “publish” on Amazon. Again, I was reminded that I’m not supposed to be ready though, just obedient.  

Now, here I am trying to step into the arena of speaking. I’m taking tons of classes, partnering with mentors, going to conferences, etc. but I know I’ll NEVER be “ready”. This is so far out of my wheelhouse that it’s laughable really. Give me a quiet room, a spreadsheet, and a budget and I’ll work up a financial plan for someone and get them set for life. Put me on a stage and be vulnerable….nah….not ready God! But darn it! I keep hitting “Go” before “Ready” so here I am! I never have been, and I’m sure I never will be, ready for anything God has called me to do.  That’s OK though because God doesn’t call the qualified; he qualifies the called.  If you wait until you’re ready, you’ll be waiting for the rest of your life.

The author of Hebrews writes, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going”.

Abraham didn’t know the destination, but it didn’t keep him from taking the first step in the journey.  If you take the first step, God will reveal the second step.  We often want to know exactly where we’re going and exactly when we’ll get there, but God doesn’t operate that way.  He gives us just enough revelation, just enough grace, just enough strength.  Why?  So, we will live in daily dependence on Him.  He doesn’t want us to rely on revelation; He wants us to rely on Him.

Without knowing where he was going, Abraham took the first step. And God honored it.  There are moments in life when you need to quit a job, make a move, or end a relationship.  And you need to take that step without knowing what the next step will be.  Don’t wait for more revelation; be obedient to the amount of revelation God has given you. 

Some people, and I think I’ve met some of them, spend their entire lives getting ready for what God wants them to do.  They never end up doing it though because they never come to the realization that they’ll never be ready.  This is where so many of us get stuck.  Our failure to act on what we know God is calling us to do not only breeds doubt and discouragement; it’s a form of disobedience.

As Christ-followers, we are called to take a why-not approach to life. It’s an approach to life that dares to dream.  It’s an approach that’s bent toward action.  And it doesn’t look for excuses not to do something.  Don’t get me wrong.  It’s awfully difficult to discern the will of God at times.  Even after prayer and fasting, it usually entails making tough decisions.  And I’m certainly not advocating a thoughtless or prayerless approach to decision-making.  We need to know that God is calling us to devote our lives to missions, take the job offer, quit our job, make the move, adopt a child, build the ministry, etc.

But I wonder if we’re so afraid of doing the wrong thing that it keeps us from doing the right thing.