What if I told you that you're hydrating wrong? Not just on the golf course, but in your spiritual walk. I've had something weird happen to me the past few years. Maybe some of you can relate. When it's hot outside and I'm playing golf, and I bend down to pick up my golf ball. I clean it, I mark it, I line the putt up. As soon as I stand up, for about two seconds, I feel like I'm going to black out. I feel like I'm going to fall over, faint. And it kind of freaked me out a bit. So I came home and I talked to my wife about it, who has a medical background, and I said, What's going on? Why am I doing this? And she said, Well, if I were to guess, you're probably not hydrating. I said, Yeah, I'm drinking tons of Gatorades on the golf course. And she said, No, that's not hydrating. So I said, Well, what is hydrating, Miss Fancy Pants, with a medical degree if I'm drinking Gatorade on the golf course? And her answer kind of surprised me and it made me think. Let me see if you can guess what it is. If not, stick around and I'll tell you. And I heard something the other day from my wife. She's a marathon runner, and it stuck with me. She said, if you're hydrating while you're running, it's already too late. And I thought, that explains a lot. Because I'm the guy who grabs water once I start feeling off, once I'm already behind. But she said, serious runners, they hydrate hours, even days before the race. They don't wait until they feel thirsty, like I do, because by then performance has already dropped. I'd never really heard that before, but it made sense. But then it hit me, it's not just about running. It's about life. It's about faith. Because most of us are trying to hydrate in the middle of the round. We wait until life gets hard, we're asked a tough question, we're in a moment that requires something from us, and then we try to catch up. There's a verse in 2 Timothy 4.2 that says, preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season. That phrase, be prepared, doesn't mean get ready when something happens. It means already be ready before the pressure, before the moment, before the opportunity. Because when the moment comes, you don't rise to it, you fall back on what you've already prepared. There's a famous quote from Abraham Lincoln that says, Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I'll spend the first four hours sharpening the axe. He understood something simple. The work you don't see determines the results everyone does. Think about how this plays out in real life. Someone asks you a question, a real question, a biblical question, and they say, Why do you believe this? How do you know the Bible is true? And you want to answer, you feel like you should, but you hesitate. Because you've heard it, you agree with it, but you haven't actually prepared for it. So in the moment, you scramble or you stay quiet, not because you don't care, but because you didn't hydrate beforehand. Or maybe it's this: you need to say something hard to someone, a friend, a spouse, someone you care about. You see something in their life that isn't quite right, but when the moment comes, it doesn't land. Because you haven't built the relationship. You haven't invested, you haven't shown up consistently. Now, when you speak truth, it feels forced. Not because the truth is wrong, but because the foundation isn't there. You're trying to make a withdrawal from a relationship you haven't deposited into. And you can flip that around. Maybe it's somebody that needs to speak truth into your life, but you've kept them at arm's length, you've kind of avoided the conversations and the awkwardness, and so now they feel like there's pressure to talk to you, and they feel like they can't speak direct truth. And that's what preparation looks like. It's not just knowledge, it's intention. It's what you do before the moment ever shows up. Time in the word when nothing feels urgent, prayer when nothing feels wrong, investing in people before the conversations get hard. Because when the moment comes, you won't have to build it. You'll only reveal what's already there. So here's the question: what are you trying to hydrate too late? Your faith, your relationships, your leadership, maybe your integrity. What if the goal isn't to react better, but to prepare earlier? So now that the summer's hit in Texas, I've changed my routine up a little bit. I start drinking hours before I tee off. And what's funny is I almost have to force the water down. I have to force the Gatorade down. I'm not thirsty. I keep drinking and drinking and drinking, and it just doesn't feel like it's doing anything. But when I get to the golf course, I'm already prepared. I've already done the hard work that didn't seem necessary a few hours ago, but now my body is reaping the benefits of my preparation. But I've also got to learn to make that shift in my own spirituality. I wake up almost every day and pray to God that He would put somebody in my life that I can point them back to Him. But what am I doing in preparation for that conversation? Am I really wanting to get what I'm asking for? Because sometimes I don't really know if I've prepared for it. So here's my two takeaways for you. Number one, hydrate before you go golfing. Nobody wants to see you pass out. And number two, on a serious note, are you preparing in advance for what you're asking God to use you for in the future? Don't wait until you feel thirsty. Don't wait until the pressure hits. Hydrate now, prepare now, be ready now. Because when your moment comes, you won't have time to prepare. You'll only have what you've already built. My name is Mark, and thank you for listening to another episode of Shanctification. Keep hydrating, keep listening, keep sharing, and keep chasing better.