12-21-2012

If you are reading this, then the world did not end - not yet at least.  Yes, this is the day the Mayan caledar pointed to as the possible end of time, but obviously we go on.  Experts on all this tell us that the Mayans, who began counting time on August 11, 3,114 B.C., divided time up into 144,000 day periods.  Today is the end of the 13th such period and there was a stone tablet discovered in the 1960's that predicted that one of the Mayan gods, Quetzalcoatl, would come to earth and time would be no more.  He appears to have missed his appointment.

Do you remember all the fears about Y2K and the year 2000?  I can still recall vividly that I had some people set up a meeting with me to question why we were not making preparations as a church - such as storing food and fuel.  Y2K was a big let down too to those who were expecting the end.  It seems we, Mayans or Baptists, are not good at predicting the end.  Jesus said we would not be.

This week, the odometer on my truck hit 111,111.1 miles.  I watched for that moment, it came and went and  nothing happened.  It seemed significant to me but no one on the road I was driving seemed to notice.  We mark time like my odometer, we can count how far we have come but we do not know how long we have left.  We know that time, like my truck, will some day come to an end, but we can never be sure when.  The only thing we can know is who will bring it to an end.

Which brings me back to the Mayans.  Why did they start counting time on August 11, 3114 B. C?  We started counting our time when Jesus was born.  We can count how far we have come since Jesus was born but not how long until he returns.  We can also recount many of the acts of his love but we cannot count how much more love he will show us. We can know that he will keep loving us.  His love can transform how we look at time.  We know that he came to earth out of love and we can know that he will return to earth for those he loves, living and dead.  When we begin to see the unmeasureable scope of his love, it makes this day and any day, even the day he comes back again, less scary.  What is 12-21-2012?  It is another day to measure how far we have come by his love.

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."  Ephesians 3:17-19

For the journey...

Tim