A couple months ago, my kids and I watched the Olympic Trials in gymnastics. This was the competition based upon which gymnasts would either earn a spot on Team USA for the London 2012 Olympics, or not.
One of the competitors was the then-reigning Olympic Women’s Individual All-Around champion, Nastia Liukin. As incredible a gymnast as her title would suggest, she intended to compete on the balance beam and uneven bars in hopes of winning a spot on the team for her second trip to the Olympics.
The only problem was that her decision to try out for the team had been made a mere few weeks before, and therefore, she had only trained seriously for about three weeks before the Trials. This left her unprepared to perform at the level of which she was capable, and it showed. She had repeated major errors on both apparatus, including a fall from the uneven bars. Her performances left me cringing in embarrassment for her.
Clearly, Nastia possesses the talent to do far better than she did. I remember watching her four years ago in Beijing, when she was at the peak of her performance ability. She was truly incredible. There was no other gymnast in the world like her. Everything she did was beautiful.
Not this time. This time, she wasn’t anywhere close to ready for the Olympics. When it came time to perform, she couldn’t do it. She wasn’t prepared, so she failed.
Obviously, things would have been different had she had more preparation time. But that was just the point. She didn’t, and there are some things in this life you just can’t do right without adequate preparation.
We all face trials in life. Some are small trials at which we could succeed with our eyes closed. But there are many that will be big enough—some will even be huge—that we won’t be able to pass without adequate preparation beforehand.
What are you doing to prepare for trials that might come?
Are you pursuing wisdom now so that when you need it, you’ll have it? Do you spend time not only reading God’s Word, but studying it? Do you attend worship services and really listen to the sermon? Do you read Christian books and think about what they teach, or talk about them with others?
Are you building an intimate relationship with God now so that when trials come, you’ll be close to Him? Do you spend time in prayer, which is simply talking with Him and listening to Him? Do you meditate on the spiritual truth? Do you record the things He tells you and bring them to mind periodically?
Are you building stamina now? Are you practicing hard work when the pressure’s off, so that when it’s on, you’ll have stamina built up?
Are you connecting with other believers now, so that when you need other people around you, you’ll have these relationships to fall back on?
If you don’t do these things now, then when a trial comes, you’ll be scrambling during the trial to catch up to where you could have been before it started. And you may not be able to do it.
God is always with us. But He expects us to diligently prepare for what might lie ahead. It’s not realistic for us to expect that we can fail to prepare for life and then have Him rescue us from the consequences of our lack of preparation. That makes about as much sense as it would if we were to show up at the Olympic Trials, never having practiced gymnastics, and expect Him to make us Olympic-caliber gymnasts.
Precious woman and mom, what are you doing to prepare? What are you doing now so that you will be ready when the time comes?
Proverbs 20:4—A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.