The End

It rained on Thursday. Rain in the mountains has a way of bringing all outdoor recreation to a sudden halt, sending everyone in the vicinity inside into the warm, dry Cardinal Cafe for some hot food. It was this that brought my new friend Ozzie and his three sons to the cafe that drizzly afternoon. Ozzie leaned against the counter and quickly fell into conversation with Mirek and I as we manned the kitchen, going back and forth about politics and such. Ozzie is the kind of guy who doesn't beat around the bush. After finding out that I am majoring in theology, he laid out his theological specialty in detail, sharing with me his beliefs about the end times. Ozzie thinks we're right on the cusp of the end.

I have never heard so much about end-times theology as I have this summer. Eschatology seems to be an untouched subject at Whitworth, given the disagreements and the lack of relevance the subject has to young people who think they will live forever. I imagine that most people see it as purely speculative and not helpful to every-day life. Honestly I never considered eschatology as very important. I always just figured that whatever is going down will happen, and I'll deal with it when it comes-if it comes in my lifetime at all.

I didn't really resonate with the whole idea until I talked to Ed Duran while pulling weeds out of the creek yesterday. Ed also believes that the end is close at hand, but he emphasized that the church will be called to do harder and more intense things in the face of great darkness. America will not last, economic prosperity won't last, and we should expect great hardship in the world. Ed's take is that the generation called to stand during that time is being equipped now by the Holy Spirit for an intense battle, a people set apart to shine brighter and brighter as the world around us gets darker. The language he used and the examples he gave reminded me of dreams that my friends have had, and the intense, reckless passion for the Lord that I see in many of my peers.

I don't really know if Ed and Ozzie are right, but I do think that we need to have what my professor, Roger Mohrlang, calls an "eschatological perspective." Jesus told us to expect his return and to hold all of our earthly plans loosely, but more than that, I believe that if we are submitted to the Lord that he will use us in this grand, epic plan he has to draw people to himself and further his kingdom. Its big! Its so huge! Thinking this way about life gets our heads out of the sand of our own circumstances and helps us to see that God is moving.

Whether the end comes tomorrow or in another thousand years, I don't want to hang on to prosperity, materiel comfort, America, my life plans, or anything in this world. I want to hold on to the promises God has for me, that he will completely satisfy my soul with the purpose infused in living out his mission.