Living in the End Times without Being Dramatic

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come."
- Mark 13:31-33

In my Christian walk, I have heard it said quite often through Bible studies and messages that we are "living in the end times." I have also heard that we should live our lives in view of the end times. There is a great amount of support in the Bible for these general propositions. There is mention meeting together as "see the day approaching." There are verses that mention that the day of the Lord coming soon written to awake Christians from their spiritual slumber.

But such recitation and repitition of these general propositions has always left me with the "ampersand" problem. What is next? Yes, we who are redeemed by God are eternally secure and can expect God's redemptive to be complete in the not-to-distant future. Yet, I really have no clue as to what such a life lived should look like. Are we to be desperate and almost in a kind of "rush" to do all we as Christians think we "should" do? Are we to bring about change in the world which we think will prompt the return of Christ? Or are we to do nothing? And if we are to radically change how life is lived, how does that come about?

The message this past Sunday was an "ah-ha" moment for me. We are to live our lives if Jesus could either come back tomorrow or 100 years from now. We are to have the acute awareness that Christ could return imminently, but not idly speculate when that date is and to take extraordinary measures in trying to ascertain when that date is. Rather than focusing solely upon the apocalyptic thoughts that so often grip us when we think about Christ's return, we must look to how Christ is transforming us in the interim between now and His return. We must focus on His redemptive plan for the World and how we may fit into that plan. In short, "living in view of the end times" is something that can be brought about by the recognition that the world as it is today will not be the same tomorrow nor in the future. It is a moving target. In addition, we as people will not be the same. The fate that both we as individuals and the world at large share is the completion of God's plan in the future. When that future is, no one knows.