"I'm Ready For Anything!"

We opened the church last night for anyone who wanted to "Ring in the New Year" with church family.  Everyone brought board games, food....some movies and music....and Brad brought our 9 Square In The Air and set it up for anyone who wanted to play.  We had people of all ages playing....Karly was probably the youngest at 6 years old, but she was thrilled that she was invited to play because usually only the kids in the youth group are allowed to play.  I was getting such a kick out of watching her get out and then come back in.....she was really horrible at the game.  It wasn't her fault, but because of her size, her attempts to hit the ball over the top bars barely ever made it over, but she didn't want to play as my partner, she wanted to play on her own.  I was just amazed that she never gave up or became discouraged!  She was just so thrilled with this opportunity....she would leave the squares and get back in the line to come back in.  AND....every time she got back into the game she would say to the server, "Hit it to me....I'm ready for ANYTHING!" with such exuberance!....I laughed and told one of my friends maybe that needs to be my motto for this year.

Obviously, this year is going to bring a lot of things our way....some things I encountered last year were really tough and I didn't feel "ready" for them!  So many people try to predict things....what will the economy do, who will win elections, how will all our sports teams fair, what will our weather look like?...those are just some of the most frequent things we predict.  Predictions rarely occur at 100%  accuracy, in fact, sometimes it seems like it is "Opposite Day" and the predictions are exactly opposite of the reality.

So, how can we be "READY FOR ANYTHING" this year?

"There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay - the decay of bodily beauty, of the natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them."  ~Oswald Chambers

Life is our INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY because we trust in Christ!  It's like it's our turn in the game....our moment to make decisions that might change the course of history for ourselves and others....because we trust in Christ!

We cannot just wait for waves of inspiration to come to us (when the time is right)...those will be few and far between....we need to live READY at all times because of the hope we have in Christ!