Times and Seasons

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 ESV). I remember May 21, 2011 very well. That was the day Harold Camping and his followers had predicted, no, insisted, that the world would come to an end. As I passed a billboard proclaiming the definitive date, I thought, well, here we are. I guess God still has plans for us! Reading this passage again, I’m struck by Paul’s insistence that we are children of the day. Picturing the day of the Lord coming “like a thief in the night” always made me think of a fearful time of waiting. If we were children of the night we could only hunker down and hope all our preparations were enough. But we don’t live in the darkness of night, where fear and uncertainty can paralyze us. We live in the bright daylight of possibility, where the wonder and the opportunities all around us are illuminated. God is not through with us yet, and as long as we’re here there’s more of the kingdom mystery breaking in, more for us to see and experience. We don’t need to know “the day or the hour” because we prepare for the day of the Lord by participating in today, because this day, and every day, is “the day that the Lord has made.” So “let us rejoice and be glad in it” (cf. Psalm 118:24). We need to rejoice in the present. We have to realize that this truly is the day that the Lord has made. Someone has said that there are three days on everybody’s calendar; yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I would assert that all of our “days” are important; however the only day which we have any real control over is today. Yesterday is gone into the tomb of time. To live in yesterday is to waste today and rob tomorrow. To live in tomorrow may cause us to not experience the joy of the present. We have to see that tomorrow is wrapped in what we do today. Today is the real “times and seasons” with meaning. Rejoice, your past is forgiven and your future is secure!