Maybe We Are Asking the Wrong Question?

4 minute read

The pool closed last weekend, so we hit it from every angle. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Candidly (and at the risk of sounding like a full blown snob), I was very over the pool at that point and every bite of food I ate there tasted the same, but because we knew the season was ending, it made it a little easier to cram it all into the weekend.

LOL to me acting like going to a dang pool in the blazing heat is torturous, but I hope you can see my heart and point. It’s interesting how the mind works for us: When we know something is ending soon, our perspective shifts, we embrace reality, and we do it. 

And right now, summer (by name, not by temperature) and pool season aren’t the only things we know are ending... We also know the world is ending.

Omgracious did she just go there?

I did, but it’s not in the way you might think! PS If you’re new here, I tend to make GIANT leaps from my anecdotes to my main point. It’s from this writing class I took called “Here’s what to do if you don’t know how to connect your introduction to your main idea.” and I am the teacher.

Welcome, class.

If you’ve buzzed around the social media feeds of various evangelical writers of late, you might’ve noticed quite a bit of talk around the question of whether all this darkness means Jesus is coming back soon. I will not be addressing whether this is true because your girl ain’t equipped, but she does have another lens through which to view this, so buckle up.

I remember as a young girl my dad would talk about Jesus coming back with a lilt in his voice and a twinkle in his eye. I wanted to agree I was equally excited, but all I could think about was everything I might lose.

What about my friends? What about our dogs? Do they come too? What about (insert sport du jour here)? Most of all though, I wondered, What about having fun?

I pictured heaven and Jesus’ return as just a big ol’ church service. Forever. Until the end of time. My rule-following heart wanted to want this… but my fun-loving spirit DID. NOT.

I say “did” because my perspective has shifted.

Chalk it up to age, maturity (lol), by His grace a deeper understanding of who God is… or honestly a mixture of it all ++++ exhaustion.

I can get exhausted by the world. I bet you can too. Sometimes my Hail Mary answer to all the darkness and work we need to do here to fix it is for Jesus to please just come back. It’s too much work. It’s too exhausting and hard... And then I remember it’s not my job to fix it - it’s my job to point to Him. (That’s your job too, btw ;)

Are you getting uncomfortable? Good. Me too. Let’s sit in it together...

While we take a deeper look at these two feelings about Jesus’ return for a second:

Heart Posture 1: I don’t want Him to come because it won’t be fun anymore/I’m sad for what I’ll leave behind when He comes.

Heart Posture 2: I do want Him to come because I’m exhausted by the brokenness of this world.

Is either heart-posture right? Yeah no, but I also don’t think our hearts can fully grasp what it means to be with Him forever in eternity yet because that would mean we were made complete in Him, and that just ain’t happening this side of heaven.

My guess though is that you can relate to both of these feelings, and like me, you might vacillate between the two based on your circumstances. Or maybe you fall somewhere in between, or even possibly outside these thoughts, and that’s totally fine. We are all on different walks.

I’m paraphrasing out of laziness, but in the excellent book Expand the Frame by Byron Gossett, he recalls the definition of integrity as the ability to appropriately deal with reality.

Confession: A lot of the time I don’t want to deal with reality, much less appropriately. I want reality to go away sometimes. Ya feel me?

Reality in Christ is this though: Jesus will come back, and the world as we know it will end… but present reality confirms He’s not back yet. 

With these views of reality - both future and present - I think we’re asking the wrong question. 

The question shouldn’t be “Is Jesus coming back soon?” but rather, “Am I living like He is?”

Because if we knew, KNEW He was coming back, we’d be pouring our guts out about Him, wouldn’t we?

We’d be sitting down with those we love who might not know Jesus and beg them to pursue Christ because there’s nothing better than Him in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD, and we’d gently remind them they’re a sinner, and that we are ALL sinners, and nothing, nothing, nothing can take the place of our sin and destiny of eternal damnation BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS. And and and and and JESUS DIED for them and covered their sins (past, present, future) with His blood because His love is so big and so huge and so vast we can’t measure it or understand it. And then we’d say that after He died, He rose again. He beat death. For them. For YOU. Then He ascended to heaven where He is on the throne, and we’d spare them the details just yet of the Holy Trinity because it can be so confusing to our human brains, but we’d tell them one of two things will happen in their lifetime: either they will die or Jesus will come back, and we would say, I want you in heaven with me because I love you and this broken world isn’t home. 

We’d be having convos like that if we knew when Jesus was coming back, wouldn’t we?

So why is it so hard to live like this when we know the future reality of His return but not the present exactness of the time or date? If I may be so bold as to bring it back to my aforementioned country club sob story - it’s because our minds thrive on urgency. When we know time is running out, we kick it into gear! 

If you’re tracking, bless you, if you’re not, here’s the summary:

How do we kick ourselves into gear to live like Jesus is coming back when no one truly knows when it will happen? 

Here are some some ideas for how to ready our hearts to start living like Jesus is coming back:

First, we pray for wisdom and discernment. We need His wisdom to stay on track to not get all “Squirrel!” about every headline we read. We also need this to stay focused on the work that’s in front of us. Your life as it is right this moment is your mission field. 

Secondly, we guard our hearts above all else. We armor up, and we pray for the ability to desire His will above our own. We ask first for the desire to talk about Him and then for the opportunity to talk about Him. 

If this freaks you out, good. Me too. Just in time for the next step...

Lastly, we tell Fear of Man to SHOVE.IT. Are you scared of what someone will think of you? Me too. Are you scared people will stop reading your blog and run the other way when they see you? Wait woah, did I just type that, but what I mean is ----  I get it!!!! This might help: Crawford learned from the saint Bill Craftson that no one can negate or deny what Jesus has done for YOU. So start there. It’s irrefutable.

Whew let’s take a breath, shall we? 

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Lastly part 2: You are equipped to talk about Him. God doesn’t need you to do it perfectly. In fact, it’s more effective if you don’t do it perfectly because it just further points to Him. Start practicing today by writing down what He’s done for you!

This blog didn’t end up where I thought it would. Clearly I’ve missed y’all. I’m so glad to be writing again, and admittedly, I was scared I couldn’t do it after taking that break. Look at God go. Thank you for being here and making it this far. I’m going to close us in prayer to help wrap up all these thoughts and leave you with some scripture for the week.

Father God, do not let this message fall on deaf ears - including my own. Help us start living like time is running out. Not out of fear though Lord but out of the sheer desire to honor you and bless your name because we love you so much! There is nothing better than you God. There’s nothing! You alone are worthy of our time and our worship, but God, in our flesh we fall so short. Your grace covers these shortcomings and for THAT we sing! We praise you! God give us the wisdom and understanding to fully grasp this and let it guide our actions. Guard our hearts, Father God. Let no weapon of the enemy’s formed against us prosper. Cover us in your armor and start morphing our desires to look more like yours, Lord. We love you and we trust you. In the mighty name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

Suggested Scripture and thoughts for the week:

Monday: Acts 1:9-11

How does Jesus returning make you feel?

Tuesday: Matthew 28:16-20

What holds you back from sharing the gospel? 

Wednesday: Proverbs 4:1-19

Where do you need wisdom and discernment?

Thursday: Proverbs 4:20-27

What do you think it means to guard your heart?

Friday: John 15:9-17

Who is on your heart to know about Jesus? Pray for them.

Saturday: Galatians 6:1-10 

What is the mission field in front of you?