The way of the godly is straight; and the way of the godly is prepared.
Can we ever speak enough about being prepared?
I know I’ve spoken about preparation quite regularly in this stream of daily posts. Yet, that is the point of Advent: to prepare for the Coming One. Moreover, that is the point of the faith…and the goal of the godly: to be prepared and to travel the straight way (i.e. orthodox) into the Kingdom.
Straight is the way that leads into the Kingdom, right?
But what does it mean to follow the straight way and go through the narrow gate?
The fathers and mothers of the Church would tell us that the first order of prayer is obedience. And obedience is something counter-cultural for us. We believe we ought to “have it our way.” And so we bend things to our will…we bend the faith to our will. We make the faith conform to us, rather than making our will conform to His will…to conform to the faith.
By bending the faith to our own will, we travel the wide and crooked way. We must diligently bring our will into submission to His will. And it is very rare that any of us are able to do this on our own. For, on our own, how do we know we aren’t fooling ourselves that we are in submission to Him…while truly serving ourselves?
That’s the main reason for spiritual guidance and having a pastor that knows you more deeply than in congregational life. We all can benefit from having someone outside ourselves who is committed to challenging us to take heed the upward calling of Christ.
Are you making sure that you are walking straight? Are you taking extra care to be prepared? Or are you taking for granted that Christ isn’t coming any time soon, so you have time later in order to prepare?
