If your home is anything like mine, most mornings are filled with the question, “Are you ready?” to which “one more minute” can be heard in reply. If you can avoid the crossfire, the entire scene can be rather predictable but amusing. Almost like clockwork, the front door will open at 6:45am, and I will hear the garage door go up. Next, the breezeway door will open, and my wife will repeat, “Come on son. We are going to be late.” This request eventually becomes a plea just before the authoritative, “Let’s go now!” arrives. It’s hard to convince my 14-year-old that if you desire to avoid this, simply get everything in order the night before. He isn’t disorganized, but he’s definitely stuck in first gear.A few years ago, when our daughter Faith was still in high school, the same conversation could be heard, except the cause of her delay was having to navigate the jungle in her bedroom to get to the hallway that led to the door. She could organize her room every day, but a tornado seemed to hit it every night around 9:00pm, and the aftermath created chaos each morning. “Mom, have you seen my shirt? Dad, is my laptop next to yours?” That chaos would escalate into another storm of a different proportion if not kept in check. Eventually, she would make it to the car and be on her way, amazingly never arriving late to school. Sometimes, I could hear a muffled, “I can’t wait until I’m an adult and don’t have to hear ‘Are you ready?’ anymore.”
Once we become adults, those three words seem to ring even louder. Recently, I was in Texas for a Homeland Security meeting, and the title of the class was — wait for it — “Are You Ready?”
Our daughter is now at Samford University, and I recently had the privilege of having some daddy-daughter time with her. We discussed all kinds of things before our conversation turned to her grandfather, who we nearly lost earlier this year. He battled through cancer, but the treatment created so many other issues that we knew only God could change the outcome.
Thankfully, our prayers were answered, but those six to eight weeks caused us to truly evaluate whether we were ready. The stress was extremely high, not because Pa wasn’t prepared to meet his maker, but because we had not truly prepared for the event.
Faith’s question was seated in avoiding the anxiety and stress of a timeline — whether it be a term paper, song recording, or death. I reminded my daughter about Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
I also reminded her that we, as believers, have a part to play, too. We must be prepared, organized, and have our stuff in order to avoid the stress of the question “Are you ready?”
to your business!