Preparing Your Mind
I was one of a group of four girls hiking together; it took us five hours to get up to the summit and four to get down. We were devoured by mosquitoes, got our feet soaked when we crossed a creek, lost the trail and ended up wandering around in the wilderness for about ten minutes. But that was all fun and games until we realized we were about to break the cardinal rule of climbing the highest peaks in the Rockies: be off the summit by noon.
You see, storms tend to roll in in the afternoon. And for all the beauty and grandeur of these peaks, they are very dangerous in a storm, which often brings lightning, hail, or snow. Or all 3. With no shelter above treeline, you're a sitting duck if you find yourself in the storm. So you get off the summit by noon.
And at 11:00, the summit was still so far away. We had been hiking four hours, stopping only for about 10 minutes to eat a sandwich. We were all exhausted, sweating, hungry, and thinking the same thing: "I'm not going to make it." The top was too far, the hike too hard, the time too short.
Though we were a group of four, we kept falling into two groups: a friend and I ahead of the other two. The two of us up front had summited another 14,000-foot peak before and we were doing out best to encourage the other two with cheesy lines and t-shirt worthy quotes. We refused to let them give up or even sit down. We knew we were cutting it close on time and we desperately wanted to say that we all made it to the top.
I had determined that I was going to make it; I knew how bad it would hurt but I surely didn't want to hike five hours and not summit.
With about thirty minutes to go, I feared we would all fail. My legs were shot, my lungs burning, my water running out. I wasn't going to stop but I wasn't confident we would succeed. At one of the literally hundred times we paused to breathe, I said to my friend, "We can't wait for them any more. We've just got to go." Though she was also hurting and doubting, she looked at me with a fierce determination and strong resolve and said, "I'm going to make it." I could see in her face that she wasn't kidding. "I know," I said, my own resolve strengthened. We trudged ahead.
Her five-word boost of confidence kept me going. Instead of stopping to wait for the other two, we just shouted encouragement over our shoulders. And for the last fifteen minutes when we were literally just climbing car-sized rocks with our hands and feet, we could feel it: we were going to make it.
And at 11:55, we climbed onto the snow-covered peak. Completely spent. Absolutely done in. Filled with excitement and exhaustion and disbelief that we were able to claim success over a peak that almost got us. Three minutes later, the other two joined us. SUCCESS. Take that, mountain!
I've thought about that hike almost every day since. It changed the four of us in ways we can't describe. The Mount of the Holy Cross left a lasting imprint on us that we cannot forget. We commiserated and remembered the story many times on the 20-hour drive home. I had journaled about it, blogged about it, and reflected on it in a dozen ways.
But today it hit me differently. Thanksgiving is one day behind us now, and I have begun to prepare my heart and mind for Christmas. I don't want to miss what God has for me in the story of Jesus' birth. I don't want to miss an opportunity to share it with my kids or my family. I don't want to miss the Holy Spirit's amazing ability to teach me something new about this holiday and story that should get old but never does. So Christmas music began today in our house.
And somehow as I was listening to Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God" and thinking about Jesus coming to earth as a little baby, my friend's words came to mind: "I'm going to make it." And I had this picture of Jesus, in all His glory, looking at the Father just before He left heaven to walk on the dust of earth as a man. They both knew how difficult it would be. They both understood the consequences of failure. They both realized there would be no second chance. And though it was all in my head, I heard our Lord Jesus say to God the Father, "I'm going to make it."
He had prepared His mind. He knew what was coming and had determined that nothing would stand in His way. Not Satan's temptations, not the disciples' confusion, not the Pharisees' condemnation or his own family's unbelief. He knew what He had come for: to die once so that we might live forever. To pay for our sins so that we could be free. To be the perfect sacrifice once and for all. To tie up the symbolism of the Old Testament into One answer: the spotless Lamb.
We are wrong to think, though, that He didn't struggle. His temptations were real. His pain was real. His stress was real. He even says it like this in John 12:27, "Now my soul is troubled and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour." (You can find all the vibrant translations here.)
The journey was hard. The pain was intense. It took everything in Him to keep going. He sweated drops of blood and begged His Dad to, please, if there was any other way, "take this cup from me" (Matthew 26:39). And from the John 12:27 quote it looks as if He had the option to call it quits.
But He had already decided that He wouldn't.
He had prepared His mind.
You have been called to do the same:
"Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ," (1 Peter 1:13, NASB. Other translations here.)
Have you prepared your mind for action?
Some of you have. You're resolved to live the life Jesus has called you to live and you are desperately pursuing Him above all else. But some of you are still just waiting for the situation to come when you'll decide what you're going to do.
I can almost guarantee that if you wait until the situation of temptation, trial, or pain, you'll make the wrong decision. You'll decide with your emotions, your heart, your hormones, or the opinion of someone else.
So I dare you today to start preparing your mind for action. YOU WILL experience loss, pain, heartache, difficult decisions, broken relationships, challenges, and disappointment. You're going to have to say no when you understand full well that the person hearing it wants only a yes. You're going to have to walk away from people you've known forever and turn your back on the expectations of others in order to be holy (1 Peter 1:16).
Prepare your mind for those things. Dig into God's Word and know what He says about love and focus and discipline and holiness. Read books by godly men and women about prayer and life and love and honesty. Get discipled by someone who has walked down the road you're about to get on. Be involved in a church that teaches you, challenges you, and instructs you.
When you prepare your mind, you don't have to worry about backing out, getting cold feet, or making the wrong choice. There's no fear that someone will talk you out of it, change your mind, or have a better argument.
Choose to follow God. Prepare your mind for it. And look yourself in the mirror every single morning and say, "I'm going to make it."
You will.
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