When I coached basketball, preparation was the key to success. Conditioning and honing of skills were important, but confidence is based on thorough preparation. For example, if the opponent ran a full-court press, I wanted my team to have a counter plan, a press breaker, whether the press was man-to-man or some variation of a zone. I wanted my teams to feel prepared for anything the competition might use to gain an advantage over them.

Wax On Wax Off

One of my favorite movies in the 80’s was The Karate Kid. It was a story about a teenager named Daniel LaRusso who moved from New Jersey to California with his mother. He struggles to fit in as the new kid. Daniel becomes the target of bullying from a group of karate students, whose aggressive behavior is encouraged by their harsh instructor.

In an early scene in the movie, Daniel is surrounded by a gang of karate students. From out of nowhere comes Mr. Miyagi, a quiet and wise maintenance man who secretly happens to be a skilled martial artist. He personally takes on the bullies and eventually causes them to run away.

Impressed by Mr. Miyagi's skills and realizing he needs to defend himself, he asks to be taught karate. After some clarifying and deep philosophical conversation, Mr. Miyagi agrees to teach Daniel karate—not just how to fight, but also lessons in discipline, balance, patience, and character.

How Daniel expected to be trained, and the methods used, seemed strange and perhaps deceitful at first. They involve doing mundane chores around the house, while Mr. Miyagi took it easy and went fishing. What he did not realize was that the motions he learned while doing those chores strengthened his muscles and honed his reflexes. In other words, the training was unorthodox but effective.

The first chore Daniel was given was to wax a yellow 1947 Ford Super De Luxe Convertible owned by Mr. Miyagi. When applying the wax, Daniel was instructed to use clockwise circles. Then he removed the dried wax with the same circular motion, counterclockwise. Wax on, like this. Wax on, wax off. In his second lesson, Daniel was instructed to paint the fence in upward and downward motions. The final chore was to sand the floor in circular motions, using the same technique as waxing the car. With a fishing pole in hand, Mr. Miyagi was ready to leave when Daniel reached his breaking point in frustration.

Feeling like a fool who had been tricked into doing chores rather than receive the agreed-upon karate lessons, he confronts Mr. Miyagi. Mr. Miyagi then proceeds to strike Daniel. His reflexes from the techniques of the chores instinctively provide defensive counter moves to block the attempted strikes. At that moment, Daniel realizes that he inadvertently learned some foundational moves to ward off an attack.

Sometimes that is the way our Christian training goes. We are prepared for the unforeseen (to us) life encounter through God’s unusual intervention. Romans 5:3-4 gives a rather unorthodox lesson, “… we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience, experience, and experience hope.” Apart from having the assurance that “all things (even tribulations) work together for good …” (Rom. 8:28), it does not seem sane to find anything glorious about tribulations. As in the lessons of The Karate Kid, not everything in life is obvious at first. Paul expressed to the Corinthian believers that “for now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully even as I have been fully known”(1 Cor 13:12 ESV).

Get ready for God’s blessing when the preparation seems useless, senseless, and purposeless.

In 2 Kings 3:16-20, a major problem had become a life-or-death situation for the Israelites; there was no water for man nor beast. So, the king sought out Elisha to intervene with the Lord. Elisha gives them the solution: go dig ditches (v. 16 KJV).

I’m sure the pragmatic and skeptical questioned the rationale of wasting time and energy, not to mention working up a thirst for digging ditches in a dry and desolate area. Perhaps we should send out scouting parties to find water. Maybe dig a well, do something rather than dig ridiculous trenches.

The next morning, the water came from the direction of Edom till the country was filled with water. Elisha said to the kings that this is but a light thing for the Lord to do.

Nothing done by direction of God is ever useless in His plan. No time is a waste of time if directed and orchestrated by God’s Word. God blesses when the preparation seems like a useless waste of time.

Not long after, Elisha faces a new challenge. In 2 Kings 4:1-7, a prophet’s widow is about to lose her two sons to become bondmen (slaves) to a creditor for an impossible amount of debt that she owes. She asks Elisha for a solution. He did not loan her the money or point her toward the nearest loan shark; he told her to go get pots! She probably thought that Elisha was crazy; she needed money, not pots.

Elisha was telling her to prepare. To go get as many as she and her two boys could. They did not understand why, but they obeyed. Once the home was filled with vessels, he instructed her to pour oil into them. Miraculously, the oil kept being replenished until all the pots were filled. She still does not know the reason for the oil-filled vessels. Then Elisha tells her to go sell the oil, pay the debt, and live her life.

When the preparation seems like a senseless, futile task, remember that God does not ask us to prepare without planning to bless us. Conducting ourselves as Christians, obeying the Lord, and working diligently for Him is never senseless nor without purpose. Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

The final lesson on preparation is in the conclusion of 2 Kings 4: 8-37. Elisha is on his way to the home of a Shunammite family. A place where he had stayed and been refreshed often on his travels. In the story, this woman, who has been blessed with a son late in life, has died of what appears to have been a sunstroke. She is very distraught, wondering why God would have given her a son just to take him abruptly, causing her to live a life of sorrow and pain. In desperation, she turns to Elisha for help.

She saddles a donkey and makes haste to meet Elisha at Mt. Carmel. Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, runs to meet her, asking about the nature of her urgent approach. When she arrives, she falls at Elisha’s feet and begs him to help. But Elisha does not seem to panic or become frantic. Remember he has just given some unorthodox instructions to others who were in dire straits, and God blessed them. This time, he gives Gehazi an unusual command. He instructs him to, run fast, don’t stop for anything or anyone and take my staff, lay it on the face of the child. The placing of the staff represented God’s authority on Elisha. However, the prophet’s persistent faith was the key to the miracle.

Once Elisha got to the house, he went up to the prophet's chamber, lay on the child twice, and the boy awoke. Elisha told the woman to take her son. She worships and carries her son out in her arms.

It’s interesting in this story that she lacked faith to birth a son in her old age, but now she has faith that her son could be raised back to life.

When preparation seems like a powerless exercise of faith, we must believe that God will provide opportunities only He can bring to pass. Someone has quipped, “Never put a period where God puts a comma.” Luke 1:37 says, “For with God nothing will be impossible.”  

“Ready… now… pull… hold… roll…”

There’s a group of elite pilots called the Blue Angels. They fly at incredible speeds, sometimes just inches apart from one another. But here’s what’s interesting: before they ever get into those jets, before the engines roar, before the crowd watches, they sit in a room, in chairs, with no planes, with no sky, just chairs, and they fly.

They close their eyes, move their hands, and talk through every single maneuver: “Ready… now… pull… hold… roll…” They go through the entire flight—moment by moment—on the ground.

To someone watching, it might look strange. It might even look unnecessary. But here’s the truth: They are winning the flight before they ever leave the ground. One former Blue Angels commander says, “You must visualize before you realize.”  When they are 18 inches apart in the air at hundreds of miles per hour, there’s no time to figure things out.

They don’t rise to the moment. They fall back on their preparation. If you don’t prepare on the ground, you will panic in the air.

In the Christian life, we often wait until we’re in the air to try to respond: when temptation hits, when pressure comes, or when decisions must be made. Scripture calls us to prepare before those moments.

• Think of Psalm 119:11 “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” That verse does not guarantee abstinence from sinning, but it does give the best chance for preparing not to sin against God.
• 2 Timothy 2:15 says “Study to shew thyself approved unto God a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Study is preparation that we may be able to correctly discern God’s word.

The battle is often won before the moment ever arrives. 

“If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you won’t. You’ve got to think high to rise, before you’ll ever win the prize. Life’s battles won’t always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later to the man who thinks he can” (from Henry Longnecker’s poem: The Winner).

General Robert E. Lee once addressed a private who was caught praying behind a tree during a battle. His captain accused him of desertion and cowardice. General Lee asked the private to pray, and the private did so. After the prayer, the General released the private to return to his troop. The captain, feeling undermined, respectfully asked General Lee why he did not court-martial the young soldier right then and there, to which Lee said, “What’s practiced in the camp is shown on the battlefield.” He could tell that the young soldier was a devout Christian by the way he prayed; it was obvious that prayer was a common thing for him.

• Don’t wait for temptation to decide what you believe.
• Don’t wait for pressure to learn how to respond.
• Don’t wait for an opportunity to get ready.

Practice obedience, fill your mind with truth, and walk with God daily now. Because when the moment comes… You won’t rise to the occasion—you’ll fall back on your preparation.

Final thoughts:

In Titus 2, Paul focuses on preparation. He urges and instructs the “older” men and women to train and encourage the “younger” generation to follow sound doctrine and to preserve a godly testimony.

More importantly, life is about preparing for eternity. Each of us will spend eternity somewhere, yet the choice is up to us. We can choose to accept the way of salvation that Jesus prepared through His death on the cross, or we can decide to pay for the wages of sin through rejection of Christ. Hence preparing to satisfy the penalty for the curse of sin through our own eternal sacrifice.

We are to learn from every circumstance we face in life. We can learn how to be or how not to be. Some methods of preparation do not seem purposeful or understandable at the time. In those times, we can make them a stumbling block or a stepping stone; the choice is ours.   

I once taught a Bible curriculum called Survival Quest. It was designed for middle school-aged students. The premise of the course was that God has a journey for each of us. Before we embark on that trek, we should load our backpacks with things that we know we will need. On a hike, there are things to take in case we need them. On the quest God has planned for us, He often puts things in our pack that we don’t necessarily understand why we need them or will ever need them, but He does.

• “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9)
• “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thy own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

God often uses uncommon preparation to produce uncommon faithfulness.