My Inbox of Daily Inspirations: Daily Heartlight -- January 22, 2008

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January 22, 2008

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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================

Last Hour, by Patrick D. Odum

So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an
hour when you do not expect him (Matthew 24:44 TNIV).

Imagine that you wake up one morning to somber news: a huge asteroid is
hurtling towards earth. It will hit in one hour, and its impact will
immediately wipe out all life on the planet. How would you spend those
last 60 minutes on earth?

I know; it's kind of a bummer to think about. But, that's exactly the
question asked by a recent survey conducted in Great Britain and
commissioned by a publishing company to market a new novel. Fifty-four
percent of respondents said that they'd spend their final hour either
at the side or on the phone with loved ones. Thirteen percent said
they'd spend their last moments on earth relaxing with a glass -- or
more likely, a bottle -- of champagne. Nine percent answered that their
last hour would be spent making love and two percent said that they'd
enjoy their favorite fatty foods. Two percent admitted that, with an
hour left to live, they'd start looting. (Although I suppose they
wouldn't have much time to enjoy whatever they took!) Amazingly enough,
only three percent of those surveyed mentioned prayer as a part of
their last hour alive. Though, if you look at it in a glass-half-full
kind of way, at least more people said that they would pray than loot.

I don't think I trust the results of the survey very much, but the
story caught my attention because it represents an attempt to get
people to think in a way that we don't usually think. It asks us to
think about how our lives would be different if all that we assume and
take for granted about the future was suddenly, dramatically, and
drastically altered. It doesn't seem that anyone answered that they'd
go to work for one more hour. No one answered that they'd take a nap.
If she knew that life would end in an hour, there's not a student in
the world who would finish that paper that was due the next day. If he
knew that he only had sixty minutes left to live, there's not a person
alive who would waste a second paying a parking ticket. Soldiers would
lay down their weapons. Surgeons would put down their scalpels. No one
would lose a fraction of that time doing anything simply because
someone else wanted them to.

Left with one hour, we would distill life down to its simplest essence.
We would ask one question: What matters most to me? And the answer to
that question, and nothing else, would determine how we'd spend those
final sixty minutes.

The more I read the Jesus in the gospels, the more I get the feeling
that he was trying to get people to live with that "last-hour" kind of
urgency, meaning, and purpose. I think we sometimes misunderstand this
principle. I think we often understand him to be saying that we'd
better "repent and be baptized" so we'll be "right with God" before he
comes back and judges us. And so we do what we're supposed to do and
then go about our lives, content in the knowledge that we're ready for
his coming. But, I don't think that's what he had in mind -- at least,
not all he had in mind.

I guess it's out of self-defense.

For one thing, he's always telling people to "keep watch." Not, "get
ready." Not, "do this one thing, and then you'll be all set." It's
"keep watch." By definition, keeping watch is a long-term activity.
It's not something you do only at certain times. A watchful homeowner,
so the parable says, stays alert all night. The faithful and wise
servant, as Jesus tells the story, is found when the master returns
doing what he was given to do. The watchful maidens, as the story goes,
were ready for the bridegroom and able to go in with him to the feast;
those who weren't so watchful were left out because they had to go get
what they were supposed to have already had. The commended servants in
the parable of the talents were those who had been doing business for
their master in his absence. And it's those who are found caring for
the hungry, thirsty, alien, poor, sick, and imprisoned when the Son of
Man returns who receive the inheritance "prepared for them since the
creation of the world."

Urgency and purpose. When we understand that life is finite and that we
don't really have that long, we distill it down to its simplest
essence. We ask one question: What matters most to me? And the answer
to that question, and nothing else, determines how we spend those final
days or years or decades. Theologians call that an "apocalyptic
mindset." Jesus just called it being "watchful."

Now, understand, that doesn't necessarily mean that Jesus is calling us
all to spend our entire lives working among the poor in the slums of
India or as a missionary in Africa or doing "full time church work"
(whatever that is). You can be watchful in the career you've chosen by
remembering that what God is using you to do among your colleagues or
customers or patients is more important than your rapid advancement.
You can be watchful as you raise a family by keeping in mind that your
most important purpose is creating in your home a miniature of the
kingdom of God. In school, or in your neighborhood, or wherever God has
placed you, being watchful means operating from his to-do list, valuing
the things he values, noticing what he notices, saying what he wants
you to say, and doing what he has given you to do for those who are in
need of compassion. It means remembering that one hour or another will
be our last on earth, and that then he's going to hold us accountable
for what we've spent our lives doing.

That doesn't have to be a scary thought. It's not that God is out to
get you or that you have to pile up enough good deeds to balance out
your sins. Jesus died and rose to secure our welcome into the Kingdom
of God. It's just that what we profess ought to match the way we live;
those of us who have asked to be let into the Kingdom through Jesus are
expected to live like we're subjects of the King.

I guess it's out of self-defense that we pretend that we're going to
live forever and that we'll have plenty of time later to do what really
matters. The fact is, though, that what we're doing with our lives
right now is what really and truly matters to us. And while it may have
nothing to do with an asteroid, we can be assured that there will be
one hour that actually is our last hour on earth. It might even be this
hour. Whenever that hour is, may our Master find us about his business
when he comes.

---------
(c) 2008 Patrick D. Odum <p.d.odum@gmail.com>.

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Daily Heartlight -- January 22, 2008