Prepare For Action

1 Peter 1:10-20

“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). These words are particularly apt for Good Friday. As we remember the passion of Jesus, his crucifixion and burial, we may find ourselves asking now what? Where do we go from here, how do we live in a world such as ours with the darkness of evil pressing so close and the pain of sin and death always ready to strike?

The author of 1 Peter says we should get ready, preparing “our minds for action” and placing our hope in Jesus Christ. Even in the events of Good Friday God remains at work, and in due time the light of Easter morning will make all things visible. We need to be ready. Like a sprinter in his stance we must be poised to spring ahead at the appointed time. Like emergency personnel we must be ready to move quickly at the first sound of the alarm bell. Like those who carry important messages we must be set to go at a moments notice. Why? Because Good Friday does not end the story. It heightens the tension to be sure, and it adds emotion to the events that swirl around us, but it does not draw God’s work to a close. We know this because the story of Easter is our story. And so we prepare ourselves to respond when the time is right, when the light finally dawns, when our Savior is raised, when death and sin are defeated.

In 1965 Curtis Mayfield wrote the song “People Get Ready,” widely consider one of the great rock songs of all time.

People get ready, there’s a train a comin’,

You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board.

All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin’,

Don’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord.

On this Good Friday the words of 1 Peter and of Curtis Mayfield fit well together. People get ready…prepare your minds for action. It may be dark today, but Easter is coming.

Prayer: Lord, help us to be ready when the time is right. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Be Prepared (Good Friday)

1 Peter 1:10-20

“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.