Preparing

"...I am going there to prepare a place for you..."

John 14:2

Jesus--

preparing a place for us...but also preparing us for that place.  

David-- just a shepherd boy, but chosen as king of Israel.  

Chosen, but not yet given the position.  

He must first be prepared.  

It begins with personal victories over lions and bears where no one sees...

no one knows.

Then a mountaintop triumph over a giant.  

But the training was only beginning...the real test...

not days, not even months, but years 

of being hunted down like a fugitive from his own father-in-law, King Saul.  

Now David finds himself seeking refuge among his enemies,

no where else to go.

Yet, even there suspicions arise and David is not safe.

He resorts to acting the part of a mad man.

Look at the mighty warrior now...in Gath, the very town Goliath was from, 

scrounging like a fool,

Goliath's own sword in his possession, but unable to use it. 

Fleeing for his life with only caves in the hills as his home on the move.  

The lowest of low.  

Preparation.

"You [also] are a chosen people, a royal priesthood..."  (1st Pet.2:9)  

But have not yet been physically raised to that position.  

Our time on earth...preparation for that position in heaven.

Not days, not years...but a lifetime.  

How's the preparation going?  Feeling a little tired?  Trapped?  Low?  

Some days I'd rather escape it all, yet... In the LORD I take refuge. 

How then can you say to me:

         "Flee like a bird to your mountain" (Psa. 11:1)

rather than stay in this painful place of training.  

Some things we are asked to embrace are hard to swallow.  

Yet, our "...troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory 

that far outweighs them all."  (2 Cor. 4:17)

They are simply preparation making us worthy of that place.  

David came undone. He played the part of the fool. 

So I too would look like the fool

in surrender to God's training me for that place.

A song by FFH says it well.

Open up wide, swallow down deep

No spoon full of sugar could make it sweet...

I try to hide and then wonder why...

Why I'm still running when I know there's no escaping.

Come undone,

surrender is stronger

I don't need to be the hero tonight.

We all want love...we all want honor

Nobody wants to pay the asking price.

These trials on earth...

preparing me for royalty in eternity.