Admit it. You’ve prayed more this week haven’t you? Give more tithe last Sunday? Indulged on chocolate this week? Called your mother/grandmother/siblings? Cleaned incriminating evidence off your computer? Put off work until next week?

No? Oh, well then, me either. That would be crazy, right?

So, you probably have seen the news or billboard or heard people talking about Judgement Day/Rapture/End of the World/We’re All Going to Die this week. If not, here’s an article for your reading pleasure. In short, Harold Camping, the President of Family Radio and the guy who predicted Judgement Day for sometime in 1994, has said that now that date is 2011. In fact, it’s May 21, 2011 at 6pm (all time zones). I guess if New Zealand is safe in roughly 9 1/2 hours, then we should be okay. From what I gather, it starts there–an earthquake or something–and makes it way around the world so that it hits each place around 6pm local time. Like I said, I think I’ll just turn on the news around 11pm Pacific Time and if all is well in New Zealand, I’ll sleep soundly.

No, of course I don’t think the world will end tomorrow. Why? Because of this:

(Jesus speaking) “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

-Mark 13:32

But all the same, I would love to take a big nation-wide poll of the above things. Are people praying more and repenting more this week? Was church attendance last week higher than normal? I think, even for me, in the back of my head, even though I’m confident in my faith and believe that Judgement Day isn’t happening tomorrow, there’s that small little voice of, What If? I mean, if so, I think it’ll just happen to be that day and not because Harold Camping was able to figure it out. Even so, I have a place in heaven, so I guess I don’t need to worry either way.

People think he’s crazy. People also probably though Noah was crazy for building an Ark. I can’t say 100% that I would have been totally on the Noah boat (literally). We have a tendency to laugh at people who get messages from God. I mean, unless it’s us or someone we know. Small messages seem to be okay, but big ones seem to make us call them crazy. I don’t think Mr. Camping has said he got a message from God though. I think he just thinks he’s smart enough to have figured God’s plan for Judgement Day out. You know, the one that Jesus himself said He didn’t even know, only God?

Then there is the fact that I have to answer questions from my teens like, “Ms. Melissa? Am I going to die on Saturday?” No, you’re not. At least not because of the world ending and I hope not for any other reason. And in the extremely unlikely case that it is Judgement Day, you’re not going to die. You’re going to be in heaven if you know Jesus, and I think you do. At least that that’s generally what I said. I’m pretty sure if he (the teen) throws in an extra few prayers this week, as he likely has, it won’t hurt anything. But why do we have to scare people into heaven? Fear is a terrible motivator. It works, but it’s terrible for getting people to do things for the right reasons. Sure, we should fear God, but out of reverence and not because of some man going around fear-mongering.

Either way, rapture or not, I’m going to be in heaven on Saturday. I’ll be at AT&T Park watching the Giants game. That’s about as close as you can get to heaven in the meantime.

[This was a sermon I did at church I think last spring sometime. It was while writing this that I actually came across the book called Prodigal God by Timothy Keller, but I just got around to reading it last month. It's a really good book--definitely worth a read. At any rate, it was good to see I wasn't totally off track with my thinking here either.]

When I was about 11 years old I decided to run away from home. See, I just had this terrible life. My parents had the nerve to make me do chores like wash the dishes. I had to share my video games with my little brother. But the worst offense, the one that pushed me over was that was I had to go on vacation every summer to Florida for one whole month! Can you imagine how terrible that would be? Disney World, Universal Studios, SeaWorld, Key West, Everglades, Daytona Beach, Miami. It was terrible. The only people I had to talk to for an entire month was my family! I got pretty good at making new friends quickly, but it was just torture. And of course, as fair skinned as I am, I’d always burn the first day of vacation, peel and then look like a freak the remainder of the trip.

So that was it. I had enough and I set off on a hot July day to leave home. I packed up some clothes and money and headed down the road. I made it about as far as the others side of the gate from my house…after all, it was pretty hot out, and I’ve already told you–I burn easily. I decided I could probably tolerate life with my family a little longer. [Read more...]