If He Finds Me Feeding the Blue Jays

Apparently it's been a prophetically busy week.  Yet another prediction about the end of the world, or in this case something about 'the rapture,' has been buzzing around social media, marking Tuesday or Wednesday as when it was all going to go down.

And here we are on a Thursday morning.

While I am dismayed that the Bible and Christians at large lose great hunks of credibility when this sort of things happens, I am glad at least for the way the recent surge of online videos, and the correlating responses provided some clarification this time, specifically about the term 'rapture' and it's rather recent arrival on the eschatological stage.  In other words, it's an idea that wasn't part of the theology of the historical church, and isn't widely embraced by modern theologians.  

With respect to my brothers and sisters in Christ who think differently on this, and if you are up for a longish but thorough article on the subject, you can always check it out in more depth here.

To be clear, I do believe the Bible describes a time when Jesus will return to usher in a restoration of all things, a time and place where God's will is perpetually being carried out, where perfect peace prevails. I'm pretty sure, actually, that one of the reasons I love it up here at the cottage so much is that there are elements here of the serenity and 'all things being right and good' here by the water that hint at God's ultimate plan.

 And now I can rhyme off my own favourite texts that happen to support my own understanding of how it will all go down, as best my puny exegetical efforts might discern it.  Micah 4, Isaiah 11, Revelation 21 and the like.  Much to the disappointment of some of my more rigorously eschatological friends, I do not hold to any 'trib' position (pre, mid, or post).  I am more inclined to read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 metaphorically (see reference below) toward a purpose of encouraging us not scaring us, as Paul explicitly states.

But in all of what the Bible describes, one thing seems clear.  We won't know when it will happen.  We're not supposed to know.  Jesus was fairly straightforward about this in Matthew 24:36.  So when anyone puts a date on it, I'm not getting too worked up.

And.

It does make a difference.

My Christian belief that Jesus will one day return to usher in His kingdom, does make a difference in how I live out my life.  It should.  

Because it begs the question:  What do I want Him finding me doing when He gets here?

There was once a time in my life where I took that to mean I'd better work my butt off doing all the obviously 'good' things I could possibly cram into any one day, any one lifetime.  Try like crazy to be as busy as possible doing 'the Lord's work."

Yeah.  That didn't go so well.  Only led to being fear-driven instead of Spirit-led, which led to exhaustion and anxiety and being useless anyways.  And it's certainly not the abundant life Jesus said He came to give me (John 10:10).

I'm still learning this, for sure.  But by now I find a quieter confidence in simply doing and being what and who God calls me to do and be in the ordinary things of life.  Nothing too flashy really.  

Yes, I get to be in Thailand a lot, and I know that to some that seems exotic.  But the truth is that when I'm there I'm reading to children, or teaching a new song, or doing a puzzle.  I preach to about 35 faithful believers there at the church on Sunday.  I struggle with my Thai language skills.  

When I'm here in Canada, I'm doing the mundane ministry stuff of administration and fundraising and communication, to help ensure these amazing at risk and orphan kids have a chance.  Not hundreds of them, mind you.  Just 25.  

And also, my days can be with my own kids and grandkids here.  Or with folks who need some simple encouragement and listening.  Or preparing a sermon or a series of sessions to hopefully enrich participants in a spiritual formation seminar, again no big crowds.  Or working through communication challenges in my marriage and being tenacious about the vows I took 47 years ago to do just that.  Or recognizing underlying anger issues in my own soul.  

Or feeding the blue jays.

And yesterday, when so many of them visited me, on the day the 'rapture' was supposed to happen, I thought that if indeed Jesus was to come right then, I'd be okay with Him finding me feeding them peanuts.  

I realized that despite my younger-years' shadow mission to make a 'big difference in the world,' most of what I do in any given day is quiet, and ordinary, and nothing that will make me famous.  I don't want to be famous.  But I do want to be faithful.

And a fun little happenstance right this minute, as I was writing these words.  A blue jay came and sat on the railing, looking straight at me through the window, and bawled me out for being a little late in putting out this morning's peanuts.   Not kidding.

So...however your non-raptured Thursday morning is going, I truly hope you know the holiness of the good and purposeful ordinary things you do to contribute to God's plans and purposes.... 

while we wait together.

[Holmes, Michael W.  The NIV Application Commentary: 1&2 Thessalonians. Grand Rapids:                                 Zondervan, 1998, pp 146ff.]