Ready vs. Prepared

In January, I asked if you were actually ready or just excited (you can catch up here).

I told that story about the ride - the prayer, me rushing my mum and sister out the door, the same ones who had said they'd be ready and then weren't quite. I said stay ready, stay aligned.

I meant every word.

But something has been sitting heavy with me since then.

Because there is a difference between being ready and being PREPARED. And I think we collapse them too easily.

The case study that won't leave my mind is the ten virgins.

You know this story. Matthew 25. All ten of them showed up. All ten had their lamps. All ten were waiting for the same bridegroom. By every visible measure - every single one - they were ready.

But the bridegroom was delayed. And when he came, five of them had run out of oil.

Those five had shown up. They had the desire, the willingness, the basic requirements. What they didn't have was ENOUGH. Enough oil for the wait. Enough oil for the distance. Enough oil to hold the light they had been given all the way to the end.

The other five had come prepared.

So here is what I want you to sit with.

To be READY is to have the lamp. You've shown up. You want what God has for you. You're excited. You have the desire and the willingness.

To be PREPARED is to have the lamp and enough oil for where you are actually going.

God answers the prayer. The test is whether you were building while you were waiting.

Don't just wait for the relationship. Prepare for it. What kind of person are you becoming? What are you working through? Do you have the capacity to love well, communicate, hold the weight of another person's life alongside your own?

Don't just wait for the job. Prepare for it. Upskill. Build your network. Make sure your work is known in the rooms that matter.

Don't just wait for the breakthrough. Prepare for it. Steward what you already have so well that more becomes the obvious next thing.

There is a quiet, unglamorous work that PREPARED people are doing right now.

It doesn't look like much from the outside. It doesn't announce itself. But it is the difference between the lamp that stays lit and the lamp that goes out right when it matters most.

My prayer for you - and very much for me:

Lord, teach me to be PREPARED. Not just to want, not just to ask - but to do the quiet work that fills the reserve. Help me to take the journey seriously enough to pack for it. To not just show up, but to be well prepared when the moment comes. Let me not be caught searching for oil when the bridegroom arrives. Fill what I cannot fill on my own. Amen.

In the preparation room, Adebimpe