But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.
2 Peter 3:8-10

Dear God, I was talking with my wife recently about Christians’ conflicted relationship with the end times. On the one hand we say, “Come on back Jesus.” On the other hand we see something that we interpret as a sign of the tribulation or whatever and we freak out. For example, if we see someone we perceive to be the anti-Christ, shouldn’t that excite us? Doesn’t that mean you’re getting closer?

It came up because she told me she had talked earlier that day with a friend who was freaked out by the recent lunar eclipse. It was the biggest one or whatever for 600 years and it will be another 600 years before it will repeat. So why does that thought cause fear and trepidation in the hearts of the faithful?

My theory is that we aren’t scared that we are losing our window to evangelize or make a difference. What is at stake is our comfort. Tell a slave or a suffering person that the end is near and they will be grateful. Tell a comfortable, fat and happy American Christian the end is near and there is resistance. There is fear of the unknown.

Father, the best thing I know to do with all of this is to take my eyes off of it and put them on you. I can’t get caught up in the future because it distracts me from this moment. Show me what you want me to do in this moment. Show me the work you have for me to do today. And help me to be what you need me to be for your kingdom so that it might come and you will might be done on earth as it is in heaven.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen