Ready for the End of the World?

[J Jack]

And so the end begins! Or maybe the whole world is overreacting...again. I will always love the people that make jokes throughout this whole thing though, they make my day

[Jeff Gerke]

Aha, the end of the world revisited!

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,483477,00.html

It seems a few scientists are now thinking the chance of the collider causing the end of the world is...slightly higher.

[gulp]

[Christian Soldier]

Ah yes! The Doomsday machine! I keep telling my cats, who plan to destroy the world to make room for the super-galactic WalMart. Anyhoo, I keep telling them that it won't work any better than the Y2K thing did.

In all reality, I've learned to treat all such things with a shrug of the shoulder and a glance at my finances. Am I ready, financially, for the end of the world?

[scintor]

I'm ready for the end whenever the Father chooses for it to come, until then ther's lunch to make and His will to do.

Scincerely,

[e-mail]

[metalikhan]

Gee, I wondered where Dr. Strangelove went to work after he learned to stop worrying!

Anyway, as followers of Christ, aren't we ready for the end of the world every moment of every day?

(Not that I want anyone to hurry and get a twitchy finger on the red or black or kaleidoscope button of doom, you understand. Just asking aren't we ready.)

[Jeff Gerke]

Lately a glance at my finances tells me I'm certainly ready for the end of the world! That way, I wouldn't owe anymore...

Jeff

[mongoose]

this crazy thought just occurred to me: So what if we're ready for the end of the world? It's not about us, and we're bound for Heaven, anyway. So let me die, or let me get raptured, or let the world be destroyed beneath me, I'm good. What's new?

But it's not about me, or us, it's about God and His name, His glory, His Kingdom and His will. And that's all about the lost. So my question is, are the rest of them ready for the end of the world? Have we done our part to prepare them for the end of the world?

Side note: I realized another thing (besides doctrine and behavior and motivation) that separates Christianity from other religions. Other religions are all the same; people trying to reach God. Christianity is the only religion that's about God trying to reach people. There's nothing special about us as Christians. He just chose us, and we chose Him. It could have been, and it often is, anyone else from any group other than whatever groups we're a part of.
Humbling, to me, that is.

While I'm at it, consider the Israelites. God's chosen people, right? One Arabic shepherd among hundreds of thousands, and not all that righteous, either, but God chose Abram and Abram obeyed. Some of the time. Even from the very beginning God chose a little no-body from a little nothing people group to represent His Glory and carry His promise.

Nothing to gloat about, apparently, to be chosen by God. It rarely, if ever, has anything to do with natural merit. But we can count on His grace to empower us to lead others to Him, and that means we're doing the job for which He chose and redeemed us. What greater honor could be bestowed upon a less worthy vessel? *is awed*

[Jeff Gerke]

Good stuff, Mongoose.

We're nothing special. At the same time, we're tremendously special. Not for gloating purposes, but for comfort and peace results.

This week my wife and I signed more official documents for the adoption of our Chinese daughter (whom we hope to be traveling to get in the next 4-6 weeks). We had to hand write out these words on the Chinese paper: "We accept Dang Rong" (her given Chinese name).

We accept her. With those words we indicated something huge, something life-changing.

Now, who is this baby that we should love her? She's a special needs orphan form another country. She has done nothing for us to cause us to love her. And yet because of Christ's love we love her desperately and are eager to take her into our home and give everything for her, if it came to that.

I don't want her living her life saying, "Who am I that you have done this? I'm a worthless nobody." I want her going through life realizing that against all odds she is outrageously loved, accepted, and valued. I wouldn't want her to get all cocky about it, of course, like it was something she did. But I don't want her doing the "I'm a lowly worm" bit either.

Jeff

[Christian Soldier]

Truly, shouldn't we all feel that way?

[Jeff Gerke]

It's a tough balance to find. Some of us struggle with pride and can think God should be glad to have us on His side. We need to be reminded that we're nobody (compared to God). Others of us lean toward feeling like we're worms anyway. We need to be reminded that He considers us so valuable He would literally do anything to protect us.

Jeff

[mongoose]

These thoughts are why I've toyed with the thought of writing a Christian Romance story, the story of the romance between God and the other main character. . . From God's POV. This would take a good grounding in theology, current reading of the Love letter He already wrote us, and a lot of communion through prayer and worship with the Lover Himself. I think, if anyone writes this, it'll do wonders for their own love life.

[seraphim]

Or you could take a "Danny Boy" approach. Love letters between a Dad and his son far away, a soldier in a distant war. The son must face death everyday, must face all kinds of things going wrong every day; bad advice, false friends among the locals, or even his own unit, temptations to revenge, to dehumanizing and victimizing those caught in path of the war, of even his enemies to whom he is the bad guy, and finally to indulge every whim of pleasure (for tomorrow you may die)....and things like that letting the closeness of literal death and the effect of the knowledge of its closeness on life when living is difficult serve as a metaphor for the general human condition in this fallen world where all our sin is rooted in our fear of death and our mad scramble to cling to anything that promises to make us feel alive and immortal, if only for a little while.

[mongoose]

There's a place for that (showing the human struggle against falshood, depravity, temptation, etc. and God's grace to enable him to remain pure), clearly, but not in a novel about God's love for us, and how it often seems romantic or passionate. The Song of Solomon type of love that God shows for us. It would have to be a romance story, though there might be drama or action either thrown in or as the backdrop. It COULD be love letters sent between the guy at home, and his female lover in the war zone, I suppose, and still communicate the point I'm going for.

[seraphim]

Not to belabor the point but that abiding love I think is precisely what a "Danny Boy" type story can show. The MC doesn't have to remain pure...he can mess up and betray himself, and others and be betrayed in turn...but its' not my story, so I can't tell you what to write. It just occurred to me that you could pursue the the God and soul love relationship that you were after in a way that is less expected. It's more gritty, more of the publican's experience vis a vis God's love. However, the Soul in love as a romance is a more expected tack, but it can be done. The best take on the Song of Soloman theme I've seen is Hannah Hurnard's Hind's Feet on High Places and its sequel Mountain of Spices. So if you like your original premise I would recommend reading those two to get a sense of the standard your work will be held too.

[morganlbusse]

I always thought that would be a good story too (the love story between God and us). After all, are we not called his bride? An idea I had a long time ago was a slave girl who some distant prince chooses to marry. He leaves with them engaged, but she continues her life, waiting for the day they marry, not sure why he chose her, what she can bring to their relationship, and while she is waiting, makes poor choices (isn't that how we are sometimes, waiting until the day we can finally see Jesus face to face).