7 Days and counting…

JUDGMENT DAY IS COMING – MAY 21, 2011

So reads the electronic billboard by my house.  I pass it every morning on my way to work and several times a week on my way to church.  My response: “Okay.”

Sound a bit glib?  Don’t get me wrong.  I’ve been to the Family Radio website and read their explanation carefully.  They believe they have worked out a logical timeline based solidly on the scriptures that works out to Judgment Day falling 7000 years after the Great Flood.  Not to be confused with The Second Coming.  That wouldn’t actually occur until October 21, 2011 by their predictions. 

But the point is this, whether I agree with their logic or not, sooner or later The End will come.    It’s been prophesied for over 2000 years and Jesus promised us he will return in full glory.  “So how can she be so flip?” you may wonder.  Simple.  Because I know I could get hit by lightning tonight when I walk the dog.  I could be hit by a bus crossing the street a week from now.  I could pass away quietly in my sleep at age 110.  It might not be THE END, but anytime could be MY END.  I hate to burst anyone’s bubble but let’s be honest here, none of us knows how much time we really have here. 

So let me ask you:   If you knew that the sun would soon go dark, would you take the time to watch the sunset?  If you knew a third of the stars would be swept from the sky, would you take time to admire the constellations in the night sky?  If you knew that a third of the plants and trees would soon die off, would you stop to smell the lilacs in bloom?  If you knew an army was going to wipe out a third of the population would you hug your loved ones a little tighter and maybe  say “I love you” a little more often?   

What if you knew, for a fact, that you only had one week left – what would you do differently?  Why not do all those things now?  Why hold back? 

Life is for living.  People are for loving.  Now, not later.

My Witness

Sunday was a wild day for me.  I gave a witness talk to a group of women from my parish of St James.  I use the term group loosely.  When I think of group, I think of under 50.  This was a crowd of between 225 and 250.  YIKES!  I’m not big into public speaking.  It scares the daylights out of me.  When I saw the ballroom set up for that many, even though I knew it would be a decent sized crowd, I seriously thought I’d have a heart attack on the spot.

At first, I was so thankful that I wasn’t the first speaker.  But then as the other woman spoke, I found all theses emotions creeping up.  I kept thinking, “Uh-oh – I can’t get all choked up and then try to speak about my own emotional stuff.”  So I kept it all in check and somehow managed to deliver my own talk without breaking down into tears.  What I wasn’t prepared for was the responses. 

I’m a writer by nature and while I’m used to hearing from people how my writing affected them, I’m not used to actually seeing it.  If you read one of my blog posts and you get teary over it, I don’t see that.  You might tell me later, but it’s not the same.  Suddenly I had people, some I knew to varying degrees and some total strangers, coming up to tell me how I’d impacted them.  It was…well…emotionally messy but not in bad way.  It was just that it was out of my control.  It wasn’t on my time table.  Wait a second, I think I surrendered something by doing this.  How did that happen?  I don’t do surrender well.  I guess maybe surrender naturally follows trust.  Perhaps as the trust deepens, so does the level of surrender.  I don’t know yet but I’ll let you know.

St. James Women’s Communion Breakfast – Witness Talk: Trust Me  

Link to the Video:http://www.vimeo.com/23179209