The Preparation Process

When I was younger I took all forms of dance classes. Tap, jazz, ballet, lyrical, clogging, pointe. I enjoyed my lessons as a whole but I didn’t always enjoy the learning process. It wasn’t fun struggling to remember steps or trying to undertake a new skill. However, I adored it when the routine became muscle memory and I could fly around the floor just feeling the music without thinking. I loved the freedom and excitement of those moments but they couldn’t happen if I didn’t go through the original learning process.

Our lives work much the same way. The preparation process isn’t always fun. It can feel repetitive, like you’re stuck in a rut. It can feel uncomfortable because you are unsure of the steps. It may require you to learn something new so you can complete the future process and it may even seem that you have fallen behind because you only remember life’s recital dance and not all the prep that went into that season as well.

We see so many seasons of preparation in the Bible which I find reassuring. This isn’t just a me problem. We all need preparation for the season we are going into next. Moses spent decades in the desert before God called him to lead His people out of Egypt. These may have felt like wasted years but think of all that was occurring in his life. He met God face-to-face and grew in Him. He started a family. He matured from a hotheaded young man in a palace to someone that understood what it meant to live side by side with others. He even learned to function in a rural, sheep rearing culture which was so incredibly important for his next 40 years of wandering.

Could God have used young Moses? Of course, because He is God but can you imagine the young man who grew up in the palace with Pharaoh’s family being thrown into the wilderness for 40 years to lead a bunch of often clueless and stubborn people? Believe it or not, learning to herd sheep probably helped a lot with that task. God knew exactly what Moses would need to complete his purpose and He wasn’t willing to let Moses skip over the preparation process even if it was uncomfortable or disappointing at times.

God knows what our next season will hold. We, on the other hand, can only guess and hope and pray which is okay for us IF we trust the Father. If you are in a season of uncomfortableness or feel stuck in a rut, ask the Father to open your eyes to the growth that may need to occur. Ask for the preparation that you will need to be successful in your next chapter. You might be surprised what you pick up along the way but boy will you be thankful when the stage lights hit and the music starts!