“Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed” (1 Peter 1:13). It seems a bit odd that the writer of 1 Peter would tell us to “prepare (our) minds for action.” We don’t normally consider our mind as the active part of our bodies. We may prepare our mind, yes, but for reflection, for intellectual work like students preparing for a test. But here we are told to set our minds to act. The next phrases, though, help us better understand. The actions we are to prepare for are discipline and hope. Think of Jesus in the garden on Maundy Thursday. Though he prayed that his passion might be avoided, he was still willing to follow God’s will with perfect obedience. Certainly that took discipline and hope. Certainly it also required Jesus’ full attention.
We live on the resurrection side of Good Friday, but still we face moments of internal crisis: choices to be made, paths to be followed, fears to be addressed. To live as a Christian means preparing our minds for the struggles of faith, means learning discipline, means placing hope. And all of this requires our full attention. The lights and the sounds of the world may distract us, but we must stay focused on what God is doing or, like so many in Jesus’ day, we will miss it altogether.
On this Good Friday I invite us all to seek the mindset needed to stand firm in the faith. There is a cross just ahead, a tomb and a stone, a silent Saturday to endure. Do we have the discipline to see this through for ourselves? Dare we hope for grace from a man who is about to die? The choices are ours. Are our minds prepared?
Prayer: Lord, help us to prepare ourselves for the events that lie ahead, that in faithful discipleship we may live as your people. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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