The End of the World

Korea just happened. As I write this, it's 2:41 AM CST on Tuesday, November 23, 2010, and on the other side of the planet, some 20 minutes ago, North Korea just fired on South Korea. I don't know how big a deal this is gonna turn out to be. Right now, the reports I'm seeing say that 2 South Korean soldiers are dead, with another 15 soldiers wounded, as well as three civilians. That may not seem like a lot, but nobody died during the actual battle of Fort Sumter, and that still tipped off the American Civil War, so who knows what could go down in Korea?

Now, I'll fully admit that I'm not the most geo-politically aware guy in the neighborhood, but I do understand that Kim Jong-il is on an entirely separate wavelength of crazy than the majority of world leaders, and that North Korea claims to have nuclear capabilities.

So it's entirely possible that things are gonna get crazy here pretty soon. I don't know.

And I don't want to be taking part in any kind of fear-mongering hysteria, like all the panic that went down about Y2K, H1N1, SARS, mad cow disease or anything else like that, but seriously, you have to at least consider the possibility that there's a very silly man with a severe cult of personality sitting in Pyongyang with way, way, WAY too much destructive power at his fingertips, and he just might get carried away with it and unleash something that changes the face of the earth for all time.

But so what?

Every few years, NASA or somebody will release another report about another meteor or comet or asteroid or whatever that might be headed towards earth's orbit and could possibly destroy all human life if we know it if it hits us.

So what?

The world might end in a nuclear holocaust tomorrow. Fiery death might crash down upon us all from the cold depths of space. It could also rain.

So what?

I'm not saying those things aren't bad, and I'm not saying that the loss of life wouldn't be tragic. I'm just saying that it shouldn't make any direct impact on the way you and I live our lives right now, and I think that for most of us, it already doesn't.

But what about the potential things of the future that we do let control our lives? We get caught up in money, in planning our futures, in planning our money for our futures, in worrying about what's gonna happen if someone gets sick...

Why?

I do not claim any sort of exclusive understanding of the Bible, nor do I want people to think that I am anything close to a "Bible scholar." I read it the best I can, and I read it often, but there are still huge stretches that I just do not understand.

For instance, the majority of the book of Revelation. I'll just straight up admit right now that I got no idea what's goin' on there. God wins. That's about as good as I can get it.

But in my encounters with Christians of other backgrounds, I've come across all sorts of interpretations for the prophetic message of John's Apocalypse. I've heard about millennialism, premillennialism (both post- and pre-tribulational), postmillennialism, amillennialism... And you know what? I don't really even understand any of them. I'll just own up to my ignorance here.

But I'll also own up to the fact that it is at least in part a willful ignorance. It's not that I think Revelation should just be ignored or anything, it's just that I don't think it's really worth too much of our time to be all caught up in trying to understand the end of the world, and there's two specific reasons for this.

Reason #1

But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Matthew 24:36

If Jesus Himself doesn't know, why are we even trying to figure it out?

Reason #2 (actually the far bigger of the two reasons)

Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

Luke 17:20-21

Oh, right... We're supposed to be living like it's already here.

As I've mentioned before, if we're focused on the future reward of our faith, we're not living in its present responsibility. And like I said last week, if you're gonna believe in God, believe what He says, do what He asks... Then why are we doing anything but living in the moment?

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

James 4:13-17

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Matthew 6:25-34

You know what? It may be tomorrow. Tomorrow may be the end of the whole thing. Is that going to change how I live my life for God?

But what if it's another 2,000 years from now? Or even more? What if we're still the "early" church?

Does it matter?

Does it make a difference?

It shouldn't.

Live today - and every day - for God. Live right now for God. Don't worry about the future - God will still be there. You might not be.

Jesus asks us to do something that is so contrary to what the world tells us we have to do in order to have productive lives - He tells us to focus on living in the moment. He tells us to stop worrying about the future. He tells us to seek God first, above everything else, above retirement plans, above food, clothing and shelter, above any of the other millions of things we have floating around in our lives that keep us from focusing on who He is and who we are in relation to Him.

This is going up the day before Thanksgiving. I may not even make it to tomorrow. I sure hope I do! But even if I don't, I've got enough faith in the God that I serve that I know that I'll be OK. And even if I make it to Thanksgiving 2083, I'll still be in the hands of the God that made me, and things will still be OK.

If the whole ride comes to a screeching halt today, how's it gonna go down? Are you trusting the One who's in control, or are you trying to control it all yourself?