where i should be grateful


i should be satisfied


Isaiah 40:1-11

“Prepare the way of the Lord.” 
…Sounds pretty good. Doesn’t it? 
It certainly fits with our most beloved image of ourselves and our lives; as preparing. Getting ready. Day by day, little by little, putting our lives, and the life of the world, a little more in order…

Prepare the way of the Lord; yeah, it sounds good…
It sounds good only so long as you don’t actually think about it.

The Advent devotion Amanda and I are reading offers a helpful description. 
It read: All we can imagine is that God is infinite, overwhelming, and beyond words. Millions of light years mean less to God than a centimeter for us. Nebulae and the Milky Way are likes specks of dust that dance in the sun for God. God upholds everything with almighty power. God knows everything, even the invisible electrons that revolve in their orbit.

…Then the writer asks, “what about us.”
What about us, indeed. 
Are you really prepared for this Lord? The Lord who is to us infinite, overwhelming and beyond words.

Prepare the way of the Lord?

A confession, the thought of preparing is NOT a comforting one. 
In fact, it’s one that fills me with an inordinate amount of apprehension.

Another confession, this was probably the first fight Amanda and I ever had as a couple… 
My family was coming over for Christmas, and the night before Amanda and I had tidied up a little. 
But as far as I was concerned, that was the key-word; little! 
The next morning, Amanda assumed we’d be relaxing before the family arrived.
Relaxing?!?! How could we relax?!?! The family was on their way!
Sure, we had washed dishes and cleaned the floors, but we hadn’t scrubbed the toilets or the shower! We hadn’t dusted the corners and the light fixtures! 
Relax? We weren’t prepared in the slightest!

…Thankfully, over time, I’ve gotten better. But, as Amanda can tell you, the key-word is, little. 
I can’t help it, though. I am helpless. I must be prepared. I am totally unprepared to be unprepared. The simple prospect of being unprepared is one that fills me with dread. 

But is this anxiety-fueled preparation really “the way of the Lord?” It certainly seems to have little to do with the comfort that began Isaiah’s sermon. Doesn’t it?

Isaiah began with comfort, and in the process he tells us to prepare. 
And like clockwork, at the first sign of anything resembling something to do, we stop listening, and start making our plans!

And in the process, end up unprepared to hear what Isaiah really has to say!
In the way of the Lord, it’s actually all our efforts to be prepared that get in the way!

…Isaiah is preaching to the people of Jerusalem, who had been conquered by and deported to Babylon. 
All along the prophets had been clear, Babylon didn’t win because they were stronger. Babylon won because God allowed them to win. 
The people of Jerusalem had been exploiting the vulnerable and disregarding the word of the Lord for a long time. And in Babylon, the people of Jerusalem were getting exactly what they deserved. 

And then, right into the middle of that well-deserved punishment, Isaiah comes along preaching comfort! 
Comfort?!?!
Believe me; no one was prepared for that! 
…Which is the only criterion to being prepared for the Lord!

The way you prepare for the Lord, is to be in such dire straights you’re NOT making any plans anymore!

Which is exactly where the people of Jerusalem had landed themselves. 
And, as all their plans went out to window, they were finally prepared for the Lord!

“Prepare the way of the Lord,” Isaiah said. 
And as Isaiah will later say, “the Lord’s ways are not our ways!” (Is. 55:8)

The way to be prepared for the Lord, is to be blessedly UNprepared! 
To be like the valleys and mountains in Isaiah’s sermon; lowered and lifted! 

The valleys didn’t lift themselves, they were lifted; passive! And the mountains didn’t lower themselves! They were made low! Made low!
This is how you prepare for the Lord! Not by making and executing your own plans, but by having your plans dashed!

And that happens all the time! Doesn’t it? We don’t need any help there…
But, blessedly, the Lord is gracious enough to dash your plans, right now! 
Right now, as you are lifted by the Good News that you don’t have to get your life in order to be acceptable to God, and so you can finally stop trying!
Or, right now, as these words burst the bubble of your quest for perfect preparedness, and bring you crashing back down to reality!
Real life is the way the Lord meets us!

This work of the Lord, lifting us when we’re low. Humbling us when we’re haughty, is a work you can’t be prepared for! That’s how it works! 
And, it’s the only thing that’ll prepare you for the way the Lord comes to us!
The way of the Lord is blessedly UNprepared!

Isn’t that how it went for Mary? 
Do you think she was prepared that night? 
No! That’s why she had to make the Lord’s cradle from a cattle stall!

Or the innkeeper. Do you think he turned Mary and Joseph away because he was mean? 
No! He did it because there really was no room in the inn! 
Even the person whose job it was to be prepared, was totally UN-prepared! 

Neither were the shepherds prepared! 
How could anyone be prepared for the heavenly army to show up in the middle of the night-shift, tearing open the heavens, and singing hymns of the peace of the Lord?!?
“The way of the Lord” is the way of blessed UNpreparedness! You can’t prepare for it! 
And, in the upside-down way of the Lord, that’s the only thing that’ll have you prepared for the way the Lord meets us! 
The way of the Lord is UNexpected, and UNmerited, too!
And until you stop trying to be prepared for it with all your plans, you’ll never be ready! BUT, once you stop trying, you’ll finally be fully prepared!

What you need to be prepared for the Lord, isn’t a life that’s in order, but one that’s coming apart! 
Not a contingency plan, but a week when all your plans have gone to pot! 
Not being ready, but being bowled over!
That’s the way our lives are prepared for the Lord!

And that means you already have everything the Lord needs to prepare your life for the upside-down way of the Lord! 
None of us have our lives perfectly in order, do we? And that makes them perfectly prepared for the Lord!

If you’re here trying to get your life in order; too late! The Lord Jesus Christ has already come to you, that’s just his way!
For the Lord comes when we’re not ready! When our life aren’t in order! And what the Lord does there, is set them right. Not by giving us something to do, but by giving us everything he came to bring! His love, his peace, his harmony with God!
This is the way of the Lord, Jesus Christ!

May you be blessedly UN-prepared this Advent!
May all your plans be taken out of your hands, and in the process may you find you had everything you needed to be prepared for the Lord all along!
May all your plans be taken out of your hands, and in the process have them given back, but NOT as something you to do, but as another gift the Lord has come to give you!

…And, Amanda, if you think that means we’re not going to have to a deep cleaning before the folks arrive this Christmas, you’re dead wrong!
It just means I’m DEAD wrong, too! Which I’ve always been, anyway! 
And if nothing else, at least the house will be clean for a while!

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