Skip to main content

Wait For It

 

  As one of our poets has said “the waiting is the hardest part”.



  It seems we are always wanting something to be here sooner. Kids want Christmas to come sooner. Parents want the vacation to be here faster. Everyone wants this year to be over.


  Yet time, as random as it seems, still advances at the same pace it always has. Yet when we want something to be here it, time seems to crawl. When we are dreading it, the clock seems to speed up.


  So how do we feel about Judgment day?


  I've noticed how many times Christ's return in scriptures is described in terms like “eagerly wait” and “looking for” (Romans 8:25 Ephesians 3:20, Titus 2:13). The cry is for the Lord to come and to come quickly. They can hardly wait.


  It's not maybe the same attitude I see today. Christ’s return is viewed as a worry sometimes. We try to keep it off our minds for fear that it might come even faster than we are expecting. We want it to stay in the distance hoping it won’t come anytime soon.


 Does this attitude say something about the level of our faith? Do we have the belief that we claim if the thought of Christ's return fills us with dread rather than excitement? Are we longing for heaven or worried about losing this world?


Christ’s return is coming even if the date isn’t on our calendar.

 How are we waiting for it?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Gift You Give Yourself

    I always hated buying gifts for my Mom. If I got her something like a new set of pans, it was like saying “Here’s something you can use to go make me something to eat”. A gift for her was seemingly a gift for me.   There are however gifts you give that benefit you more than the receiver. For example, forgiveness. When you give it, you are giving it to yourself as much as you are giving it to them. Jesus said that when we forgive others it means God is forgiving us our wrongs (Matthew 6:14-15).  I once read: “ Heaven is where everyone's forgiven. Hell is where nobody's forgiven.  So, when we forgive we pull heaven down into our lives.  When we withhold forgiveness, we pull hell up into our lives ” Give yourself something nice today, Forgive.

Desire

  Is it wrong to want something? I guess it depends on what we want.   The Greek language had a word ‘ orego ’ that meant “to stretch oneself out in order to touch or grasp something, often used metaphorically to denote a strong desire or aspiration for something”. Paul uses this word in 1st Timothy as a good thing (to be an elder 3:1) and a bad thing (longing for money 6:10).   Our desires oftentimes define who we are. They motivate us to action. They are the focus of our minds and actions.  And they can be both good and bad.  Sometimes we want something better and we run over people to get it. Sometimes, we want something better so we will strive to improve ourselves.  Sometimes we see people with nothing they want and we envy them. Other people will see with no desire and we pity them.  We need to desire good things. Be willing to work to get them. Care enough to try.  We need to not desire bad things. Be willing to forgo o...

Until Midnight

    In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back.       I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...