It Almost Rained

Last Tuesday in Tucson, it almost rained. Clouds hung over the Catalina range which lies along the east side of our home. It was an ugly winter day. We saw a few drops of water on the stones outside, and the temperature didn’t rise above 60.

You have to understand. We haven’t had any rain since the first week of September. Well, OK. The newspaper reports that .01 of an inch fell at the Tucson airport on December 12. Does that count? This is the driest fall and winter for Tucson since records began in 1895.

As the sun began to set in the west, a double rainbow appeared over Mount Lemmon. A double rainbow! I never saw that before. Not one, but two rainbows rising side by side from the foot of the mountain up into the clouds above. I got up from the table and went for my camera. Let’s see. Where is it? I moved it from my den when I cleared the clutter to make room for office furniture. I searched high and low. Finally, there it was, in the utility room cabinets, right where I left it two weeks ago.

You guessed it. The rainbows were gone.

A lot of things get away from us when we are unprepared. When I began ministry some forty plus years ago, I wrote sermon notes on a small piece of paper and flew by the seat of my pants. In time, I realized that things got away from me. The time got away from me. Important points were missed. I made mistakes.

I started writing everything out. Then I learned to go over everything I wanted to say, again and again. Mind you, I still made mistakes. But it got better. I learned that the more I prepared, the better I performed. Not only did this apply to preaching, but also to teaching and organizing and leading board discussions and visiting homes. Everything got better when I prepared ahead of time.

Now that I watch others from the sidelines, the value of preparation has become even more obvious to me. Most of the ministers I observe do not prepare as well as they should. They fly by the seat of their pants. Some of them do pretty well. They could do even better if they would only prepare.

Some years ago, Don Shula, football coach for the Dolphins, wrote a book entitled Everyone’s a Coach. He built his chapters off the word “coach:” C for “conviction-driven,” O for “over-learning,” A for “audible-ready,” C for “consistency,” and H for “honesty-based.” His ideas were very helpful to me. The chapters on “over-learning” and “audible-ready” have a lot to do with preparation.

The will to win is not enough. You must have the will to prepare.

My camera now sets on the window sill, waiting for the next rainbow.