How Ready We Think We Are and How Unready We Are
You know that chant crowds and teams say before a big game?
WEEEEE READDDYYYY
The whole crowd says it like one voice. The team believes it. The fans believe it. The energy is high. The lights are on. Everybody is convinced the moment has come and they are prepared for it.
WEEEEE READDDYYYY
WEEEEE READDDYYYY
FOOOOOORRRRR Y’ALLLLLLL
But I keep thinking about that phrase when it comes to the kingdom of God.
Are we ready? Are we really ready?
The people closest to the truth are sometimes the ones in the most danger. Not because truth is dangerous, but because proximity to truth can deceive us into thinking we have been changed by it.
I have been in church my entire life. I have gone to multiple church camps. I have heard great sermons. I have been “mentored” by multiple “great” people and I put those words in quotes because I am learning that not everything called mentorship is discipleship, and not everyone called great is great in the Lord.
I have had multiple Bibles highlighted. I have served in church from sunrise to sunset for years. I have fasted. I have prayed. I would even say I studied the Word, but I am learning there is a huge difference between studying just to study and studying to know God’s heart. One can make you informed, the other makes you surrender. I went to church every Sunday. I went on Wednesdays. I attended small groups and discipleship groups. I confessed things I struggled with to people I believed were strong in the faith.
And still, I am realizing how unready I was.
This book is centered around two of Jesus’ parables: the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11–32, specifically the older son and the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1–13.
These parables have exposed me.
In the prodigal son, I see myself in the older brother. He was in the house, but somehow far from the father’s heart. He was near the father, working for the father, obeying the father outwardly, but still did not understand the father’s love, he did not understand his sonship.
And in the parable of the ten virgins, I see myself in the foolish virgins. They looked ready. They had lamps. They were waiting, they were comfortable and felt ready enough to fall asleep. They were around the right people. They were close to the wedding. But when the bridegroom came, they were not ready.
That scares me, because looking ready is not the same as being ready.
This book is about how ready we think we are and how unready we actually are. It is about how easily our hearts deceive us into believing we are good when, apart from God, we are not.
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
Genesis 6:5 says the Lord saw that “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Those verses have been revealing something painful to me: my heart is wicked, dark, and crooked without God. God is the only One who can make it straight.
And to understand this book, you have to understand that.
If there are two paths — good and wicked — without God, we will choose wicked. No question. We may think we would not, and that is the problem. The deception is not just that we do evil. The deeper deception is that we think we are above it. We think we are good people. We think our intentions are pure. We think because the goal sounds good, the heart behind it must be good too.
But even a good desire can become wicked when God is not in it.
You can want to start a nonprofit to help children and still use evil means to make it happen. You can want to serve people and still secretly want applause. You can want to do ministry and still be driven by pride. You can want to be seen as faithful more than you actually want to be faithful.
That is how deceitful the heart is.
And if we do not realize that we are fallen, if we do not realize that we are desperately wicked without God, then we are unprepared.
Because the person who thinks they are ready may be the hardest person to warn.
Again, going back to the “we ready” chant, it is possible to scream that you are ready, run onto the field, and still get exposed.
Then the game starts. And by the end, you realize the chant did not make you ready. The noise did not make you ready. The uniform did not make you ready. Being on the field did not make you ready.
You were not ready because you had not been formed for the moment. You did not train like you said you trained. You did not sacrifice like you said you sacrificed. You did not prepare like you claimed you prepared.
And I think that is what scares me about the kingdom.
A lot of us are chanting, “We ready,” but Jesus is asking, “Do you have oil?” Because when the Bridegroom comes, the chant will not matter. The lamp alone will not matter. The appearance will not matter. The crowd around us will not matter.
What will matter is whether we truly know Him.
So this book is not me pointing fingers at people who are unready.
This is me saying I was chanting too.
I had the lamp.
I knew the words.
I looked the part.
But by the mercy of God, I am realizing that almost ready is still unready.