Blogging Blast #1: How well are you “prepped”?

(So just what is a Blogging Blast??— BLOGGING BLAST #1 )

I just received my new official emergency backpack for my office.  (I’m a school nurse, and we try to prepare for the unthinkable, as well as treat headaches and put bandaids on boo-boos.)  I won’t mention where I got it, but I say it’s “official” since it’s bright red and has a cross on it.  Supposedly, it has enough space to hold supplies for three days.  It’s the three days of “what” that gives one pause, and obviously calls for prioritizing what one might need for those three days. (Three days with 550+ middle schoolers….just sayin’.)

Nevertheless, it always good to be prepared.  There’s been a movement about the nation of people who have been dubbed “Preppers”.  I went to one website that offered topics from Hunting and Plant Gathering After Nuclear Fallout to How To Make Garlic Pan Bread On A Campfire . 

I wouldn’t last long….

Still, I admire their self-sufficiency and training.  Their diligence can not only save their own lives, but many of those around them, (you know, kinda like a guy named Noah, but that’s another story.)

And so, I appreciate the account of the Israelites wandering about in the wilderness for several decades.  The problem was–and it is endemically not an ethnic but a human one–how they responded in that wilderness.  

“Yet how quickly they [the Israelites] forgot what He [God] had done! They wouldn’t wait for his counsel! In the wilderness their desires ran wild, testing God’s patience in that dry wasteland. (1)

What happens in the wilderness is a test. (BTW, Jesus was also tested in the wilderness, and passed, thank God.)  Complaining, griping, jealousy, and begging (demanding?) things from God are natural responses to wilderness wanderings.  It behooves us, however, to be ever so careful what we ask for and HOW we ask.  As with the Israelites, we may get more than we want. 

“So he gave them what they asked for, but he sent a plague along with it.”

By contrast, God is watching for supernatural responses in our wilderness sojourn, things like obedience, faithfulness, and patient endurance.  And we actually have those things available if we allow God to fill up the bag instead of ourselves.  Similar to our Prepper friends, planning for our spiritual wilderness is necessary, since we are told that the “Valley of the Shadow” is a when, not an if.  (Reference Psalm 23)  And very much akin to the survivalist experts, our personal preparation will help not only us, but others as well.

Right, so here it comes. (What did you expect??)  We do this by stocking up on Living Water (John 7:28) , Bread of Life (John 6:35), God’s Armor (Ephesians 6) and Spiritual Weaponry (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).  Which, of course, takes time and effort, and (the operative word) priority.  Always remembering that it’s not just about me.

Best to get your backpack ready.  This usually last more than three days.

 

Ps 106: 13-14   Tyndale House Publishers Inc (2008-06-01). The One Year Bible NLT (One Year Bible: Nlt Book 2)