Waiting for the End

I've been seeing a popular bumper sticker out lately that reads — "Is It 2012 Yet?" This, of course, is a reference to the Mayan calendar prediction that the world will end in December of 2012. And it fits perfectly with people's fascination with the end of the world.

I remember when I was in college, in the fall of 1999, and all the Y2K madness was going on. One night in December, just before Christmas break, my friend and I walked to the nearby theater and saw "End of Days." (Of course end of the world films are always popular during such periods). Walking back to campus, we couldn't help but wonder if the world would be plunged into chaos on New Year's eve.

I remember people buying bottled water, canned food, and pulling out all the cash they could just after Christmas. Everyone braced for the worst — and nothing happened. Looking back now, it seems silly. But at the time, it seemed so real.

Now we're in it again. With two years to go before the next prediction of the end of the world (or one year if you buy into the fringe Christian theory about May of 2011), the madness continues. But is that what we should be doing?

I watched the film "2012" last November and thought it was interesting. I read the theories about the Mayan calendar and the "Biblical evidence" for the 2011 theory and found them interesting as well. What I didn't feel was particularly concerned.

Recently Linkin Park released a new album that had a song called "Waiting for the End." The lyrics read:

Waiting for the end to come

Wishing I had strength to stand

This is not what I had planned

It's out of my control....

Flying at the speed of light

Thoughts were spinning in my head

So many things were left unsaid

It's hard to let you go...

(Oh!) I know what it takes to move on,

I know how it feels to lie,

All I wanna do

Is trade this life for something new

Holding on to what I haven't got

I guess the point is, we are not in control of this life, but when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we know the one who is. It doesn't matter when the end comes, all that matters is what we do with the time we have and where our hope lies.