A Hopeful Future

During my ordiantion council a couple of years ago, I was asked what I believed to be true about the end times or the end of the world. After three yars at seminary and countless Bible studies, I provided the insightful and brilliant answer: I don't know. This caught some of my examiners off guard, but in Christendom, there are several theories as to how the world will end and I am not sure as to which one is 'more correct' than the other. It seems as though people have been expecting the world to end since the ministry of Jesus. When you couple this 'when is the world going to end' frenzy with a mindset (that some followers of Jesus can have) that life on earth is miserable and you can see why some in Christendom can take on an 'escapist' mentality.

I began to make my way through Philippians earlier this week and was struck by Paul’s tension with whether to go be with Christ, which he admits would be better, or to stay with the Philippians, which he admits is necessary. His single goal is to advance the gospel and even though he is in chains, he’s full of joy for the people he’s served. While he’s close to dying or knows that his life is coming to an end, his desire is to stay on earth in order to see the kingdom advanced.

I like this perspective. When we hear of everything negative going on in our world, the temptation is to long for a left behind type of sequence where God raptures out the faithful and we escape the earth’s last days. Paul certainly believes that life with Christ is something he’s looking forward to, but he also knows that his work here is not done and that vision keeps his drive alive. When I think of everything going on, I'm encouraged by some Hillcresters taking bold steps to advance the kingdom. I think of how one Hillcresters gave 13 under-resourced Cleveland kids haircuts this week. In all, the school has received 59 permission slips came back saying that thier kids needed haircuts! Just one woman volunteering her talent and meeting an amazing need. I also think of one Hillcrester took his mentoring of a Cleveland student to a new level, getting approved to be a Big Brother and now mentoring his student inside of and outside of school. The student is almost like another member of the family, which was so neat to hear about. Until the world comes to an end, we need to be about these things.