No One's Ever Ready
the First Time
You'll never feel ready.
Not for the hard call, not for the fresh start, not for the leap of faith. This week we ride that truth slow, a morning at a time: being ready is an emotion, being equipped is a leap of faith, and God has been getting you outfitted the whole climb whether you noticed or not. Pour a cup of coffee. We'll start where I started, on the back of a green bareback horse.
Never Ready the First Time
Last week I left you with me laying in the dirt at Charlie Thompson's place, bloody, broke open, in a full-blown asthma attack, while somebody hollered, "Are you ready?!" I screamed that I was dying. And somewhere in the fog I can still hear somebody say, "I think that means yes."
Here's the point of every green bareback horse I ever climbed on: no one is ever ready the first time. Not one of us. Not for the horse, not for the diagnosis, not for the empty chair at the table, not for the thing God's been asking you to do.
And here's what we do about it. We hope, we pray, and we ask God to show us the way. Then He shows us, and we do nothing. Because we are not ready. We treat ready like it's a requirement, and it never was. Being ready is an emotion. Being equipped is a leap of faith.
Name the thing God has already shown you that you've been sitting on because you don't feel ready. Not the whole list, the one thing. Write it down. We're going to ride toward it all week.
The Jump to the Finger Hold
The Christian life is climbing a mountain. It starts off a gentle slope. Then it's over creeks and boulders. Then through trees and across ridges. And the longer you climb, the harder it gets. Even with God. Nobody tells you that part when you sign on, but you've lived it, so I'll say it plain: even with God, the climb gets harder the higher you go.
And then one day you come around a ledge and the trail flat runs out. What's left is a jump, out and up, to a finger hold. Not a handhold. A finger hold. And every single thing in you says the same thing it said on that first green horse: I'm not ready.
Of course you're not. No one is ever ready ... the first time. Ready was never going to show up. That's why God never asked you to be ready. There's something else He's been making you the whole climb, and we'll spend the rest of the week on it.
Look back down your own mountain today. Name two or three stretches you swore you couldn't climb at the time, and climbed. You're not proving you're tough. You're gathering the evidence for what comes tomorrow.
God Wasted None of It
You've wasted a lot of your life. But God hasn't. Despite all your mistakes, your wrong turns, your flats and your U-turns, God has been leading you to a specific destination the whole time: Him.
He remembers what you forgot. The prayers, the dreams, the kindness you showed, the love bestowed, and the laughs untold. And He remembers your tears, your loss, your pain, and your shame. God wasted none of it. Not one mile. He used every bit of it to prepare you for the next part of your growth.
I can look back over my own trail and see God's guidance even in the years I wasn't looking to follow. I see it now. Let me tell you what I see. I see 1,000 fears that never came true. I see hundreds of soul-shattering events that never shattered me. I see 10,000 bullies, but I am still standing. I see every hard day I've ever had, and I've covered them all.
Make your own list this morning, out loud or on paper. The fears that never came true. The things that should have shattered you and didn't. The hard days you covered. That list is not your grit. That list is His guidance.
Prepared, Then Equipped
You'll never be ready for the leap of faith the first time. But you can be prepared. Prepared is recognizing what God has DONE in your life. Not what He has given you. What He has done. And you'll never see it through the lens of the world. Only through the cross.
Now you're prepared for the leap of faith. You're just not equipped yet. Equipped means seeing it from His point of view: that real strength is letting go of a throat instead of holding it. That where there is love, there is victory, even on a cross. That sacrifice leads to life, not death. That the greatest will be the servants. That it's impossible to follow two masters. That prayers are answered.
And the number one thing you have to see from God's point of view is you. Through God's eyes: He sees His child, not a mistake. He sees His lost lamb, not someone forgotten. He sees the beauty of your soul, regardless of how you treated the body. He sees the blind, the deaf, the lame, and even the dumb. He sees you. Now you're equipped. How do I know? Because He's helped you be.
Read that God's-eyes list again, slow, and put your own name in it. His child, not a mistake. His lost lamb, not someone forgotten. If you can't say it about yourself yet, say it anyway. That's what seeing it from His point of view means.
For Anything ... for the First Time
So here's where the week lands. Now you're prepared. Now you're equipped. But not just for that leap of faith onto the finger hold. For anything ... for the first time.
Like the time I was about 8 years old and came around the third barrel to win it all at the Big Lake World Playday finals. I looked like a moth flappin' on a window, I was riding that horse so hard. In the words of Ray Stevens: what happened next is hard to tell. Some thought it was heaven. Others thought it was hell. But the fact that something was among us was plain to see.
And that's where I'm leaving it. Come back next week and I'll tell you what happened coming around that third barrel. Same time, same ranch.
If you've been waiting to feel ready before you follow Him, here's the move. Quit waiting. Say something like: "Father, I've spent years waiting to feel ready, and I'm done waiting. Thank you for wasting none of my story, for preparing me with everything you've done, and for equipping me for the work you laid out. When you show me the finger hold, give me the faith to jump. In Jesus' name." Then jump. He has never once let go of a man mid-leap.
Go back to the thing you named on Day One, the one you've been sitting on because you weren't ready. You were never going to be. You're prepared and you're equipped, and that's the whole kit. Take the first step at it today, the first time, not ready.
The sermon begins at 2:27; the button takes you straight there.