The DMV vs. Trader Joes
1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out
to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.” Matthew 25:1-4
The kingdom of heaven is like … grandiose and glorious, fancy and unfathomable, pretty and spectacular. Nope. The kingdom of heaven is like 5 women who were smart and prepared, and five who were stupid and lazy. See, Jesus turns everything on its head. When describing what the kingdom of heaven is like, I imagine the description on the location, on the particulars of the scene and site of heaven. But you see Jesus doesn’t take time to describe the locale. Instead, He describes the mentality on how to get there. In this situation, how to be prepared for that kingdom.
Ten women are described as having the necessary elements and ingredients to sustain the short term journey of the waiting for the bridegroom. But when thinking of the potential of a waiting period, these women split into two groups. There are those that brought extra oil, and those that didn’t. But you see being ready for something is less about what you do and more about how you think, your mindset. You see, when I am about go to the DMV, I bring headphones, a bottle of water, some starbursts in my back pocket, a bag of Gardetto’s in the car. Why? Well, it’s simple. I know that I am going to be waiting a long time to get whatever I want done, so I come prepared. But the other day, I wanted to go to Trader Joe’s and while driving I see a line of 20 people waiting to go in. I really wanted some of their chocolate and peanut butter cups. So I go into the parking lot, and I sit there for a few seconds wondering if I am going to go in, and I think to myself wondering, contemplating whether I should stay or wait. Lo and behold, I don’t. I leave. You see even though I didn’t really want to leave, I left. Not because my desire wasn’t there, but because I wasn’t prepared to wait, I didn’t have the right shoes, or my headphones, or even my water. By the way, I still haven’t gone back to get those peanuts butter cups to this day. Pray that those peanut butter cups make their way back into my home. All joking aside, the point is this. Readiness is 50% physical and 50% mental. And the 5 virgins didn’t just have a desire to wait, they did, they waited, they showed that they had the will to wait and backed that up with action. This shows us that they didn’t bring the oil not because of desire but because of mentality. Our thoughts, our mindset reflect in our actions, and in this case in our readiness. When it comes for waiting for our God to take us home. It’s important to do the right things and be prepared and be ready physically (praying, studying, fellowship in with the right influences), but what is as important is where our mindset is. Are we mentally prepared to wait, are we mentally ready to wait? This sabbath I am going to be going over not only what readiness means, but what it actually and practically looks like.
Connected to the Vine,
Pastor Victor