Are you ready, for such times as these...

It’s a most urgent message in a day where life is more fragile than ever, the threat of world war including the use of nuclear weapons, worsening climate disaster, impending global famine, economies imploding and regional recessions.  And realistically, that’s only a few of the biggest issues.  What can be done, personally?

Get equipped, stay equipped.  It’s as simple as that.  Get ready.  Stay ready.

I’m led to deliver something of the prophetic in this offering.  In our heart of hearts we’ve probably all felt that there was something of the “end times” in these most recent of decades.

So what if it happened tomorrow, that the unprecedented thing occurred?  Well, it shouldn’t surprise us if it did.  Think of how the pandemic response was “unprecedented,” and just think of how “unprecedented” the frequency and intensity of many of the recent natural disasters have been.

At the very least, are we ready for our lives to be upended?  The least we should be prepared for is what should happen if life changes overnight.  Are we holding this life lightly and are we thankful for what we have today? — however little or hard that is.

This is about getting ourselves mentally ready for whatever may occur.

Are our houses in order?  Are we ready to die?  It only dawns on us when we lose someone dear to us that once we’re gone it’s too late to make requests known, to set in motion our will regarding unsaid things, to make amends, to reconcile matters or relationships, to ensure people we leave behind are set at ease with our passing.  Now is the time to think of these things.  It’s too late when it’s too late.

Getting ourselves physically prepared in terms of tidying up paperwork, sorting our lives out, carrying out important tasks, is also key in getting and staying equipped.  Are we ready to be found ‘as we presently are’?

Should the world descend into more chaos than any of us are today prepared for, will we be ready physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually?  We do need to be ready and therefore equipped for anything to happen tomorrow.  In some terms, it’s about being ready to face that which resembles the end of life itself.

What if we’re impacted by disaster?  It puts all our contexts today into the finer points of perspective.  We need to make the most of the time we have with those we love and care about.  This is a key opportunity to break past the addictive bonds we have that mean we miss our purpose.

Our purpose is to carpe diem or seize the moment.  There is no other time than now.

To get equipped and stay equipped means we see our lives as a mission.  It means we’re “on deployment” here, and where we truly don’t consider “here” home.  It seems like home, but earth is not where we stay.

We’re more foreigners here than we readily imagine, especially in the context of any form of sudden death any of us could suffer.  We all need to be woken up about these things.

More is the hope now than ever that we will at least think about the things that could occur.

Before it’s too late, at least we can prepare ourselves for the regret we will feel knowing we didn’t prepare well enough.  And without wanting to make you into a “prepper” I do pray that you at least consider how finite you are — prepare at the very least for eternity.  It comes down to Pascal’s Wager, “what if there IS a God?”

Have you made peace with everything and everyone you could make peace with?  At least have you don’t your best?  There are many people and situations we must leave with God, but of those that are in your control, are you redeeming these as much as it depends on you?

... or all this said, we are satisfied to leave it all behind as it is now.  That’s faith.