**We interrupt this regular birdy broadcast for an important message.  Or at least a message that bears some thought.  Or one thought, at least, if you can’t spare a few.**

I recently went on a road trip with a friend and we had eleven hours in the car together.  Both ways!  The crazy thing is that we are still friends, even after my attempts to save a turtle detoured us to the worst gravel road in North America, and the abundances of tiny frogs on another road caused me to drive like a drunken maniac to avoid hitting them.

Somewhere in that 22 hours of road time, we got to talking about preparedness.  Not the “retreat to a converted shipping container in the mountains to avoid the zombies” kind of prepping, but more like the “how can we be ready, spirit, soul and body, to be nimble and responsive to the King in the midst of a crisis” kind of prepping.  And yes, for me that still involves a Go bag – complete with first aid supplies, a ham radio, and crowbars in the trunk of my car.  I like to be practical.

But God apparently decided I needed a reminder about the abstract.  Odd that He would have to remind a Mercy about that.

We are all familiar with Philippians 4:8.  In a nutshell:  think on good stuff because it is good for you.  I have always related to that verse in a general sense.  Don’t defile your mind with junk from books, TV, movies, etc.  Focus on God, not the devil, because whoever you concentrate on will become bigger to you.   Don’t have a fear-based worldview.  Things like that.  It was more of a broad application and it was about keeping your mind right in the present.

Well, I recently saw the verse and the concept in a whole new light – painfully specific and about keeping your mind right for the future.  A different kind of prepping.

I have one of those challenging dynamics in community where you have history with a particular personality and there is some truth in the opinions you have formed.  This is a soil in which all kinds of interesting plants can grow, some of them not very pretty at all.  Well, there were a couple of them that I let grow, and threw some fertilizer on from time to time.  There is a sickening kind of satisfaction that can come out of nursing those ugly little plants.

So, a situation came up, as situations often do.  I made a bad call and had to choke down the fruit of one of those aforementioned ugly little plants.  I wouldn’t recommend it.  I will be washing my mouth out for a week.

It was one of those rare and profound moments in life when you look at yourself from the outside and can, for an instant, clearly see the chain of events that got you there.  I had done everything possible to prepare myself for failure.  I grew that plant and then had to eat the fruit.

Our thoughts and attitudes are going to condition us for some kind of reaction in the future.  Many of our decisions are not the result of the moment, but of a thousand moments leading up to it.  They form our worldview and they color our every day interactions.

You know, it really isn’t worth it.  Who knows how your mind will be tested in the future.  What will be the force of the thousand thoughts and emotions that will direct it?