It’s not even thanksgiving and I’ve already driven through 2, I repeat TWO, snowstorms! It’s funny because I grew up in Canada and learned how to drive in the snow. Five years living on an island in the Caribbean totally changed my heart towards the snow though. Don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful and lovely-when I get to enjoy its beauty and loveliness in my house for days (with the occasional shoveling and sledding breaks, or a nice little snow stroll). When I have to leave the house and drive somewhere, that’s when snow and I break up.
Before our first snowpocalypse last Thursday I was getting ready for work. I have a morning routine that I love. I wake up, spend time with Jesus in the word, get my coffee, and then I get myself ready for work. I usually have worship music on and use that time to talk to Jesus about life and also process what the day to come might look like. Thursday, as I was thinking through the day I remembered I needed to go to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for jalapeño poppers that I was making for our potluck that day. Then my thoughts moved to “ugh. The grocery store. Snow. This should be fun. It’s going to be full of people getting ready for the storm!” In my head was saying storm like “storm” because you just never know in Lancaster if the snow is actually going to come when they call for it. So as I started to think about taking on the grocery store, (thankful that bread, milk and eggs were not on my list) I felt like God gave me a little download.
I started thinking about how psycho people get when they’re just calling for snow. I mean, we don’t actually know if it’s going to come or not. And with good reason we have the rights to question the weather people-they get it wrong…a lot! Sometimes they call for snow and nothing happens. I kind of chuckled to myself that people might be stocking up on all of this stuff with urgency for the snow and then wondered what they do with it all? Brunch? As I was thinking about this I heard the Lord say “Imagine if people put that much intentionality to preparing for me?” We KNOW that Jesus is going to return someday. We don’t know when-but we know it WILL happen. Not like the snow storms that “might” come or might not. Yet do we live with a sense of urgency to prepare for His coming? Do we get caught up in the day to day of life that we forget to live for the Kingdom? Man. I’m not going to lie, this was convicting. I have a deep stirring in my soul, it’s been stirring up for quite some time. It’s a stirring to see revival come to our Nation, to all of the nations. To see people live radically for Jesus because their love for Him is so deep. What if you didn’t have to run to the store last minute for a snow storm and you just lived in a prepared state of mind? What if you lived the same way for Jesus? Living in a prepared state of mind because He could come back anytime. I don’t mean this to be like you have to strive or be “works” minded. But I mean what if we live so in love with Jesus, if we share His love with excitement and urgency to anyone and everyone, so that when He does come we can say we laid everything on the line for Him all the time? The older I get the more I see how short life really is. Time moves faster, the years seem shorter.
Don’t wait for the storm to get ready because you might not have enough time to prepare. Live in the now, live in a prepared state of mind and when the storm comes it’s not even going to phase you because you’re ready. Live so in love and on fire for Jesus NOW. Don’t wait for the next conference or the next Sunday or the next amazing podcast. Live in the NOW. God has so much waiting for you in the NOW!
Katie Joy 