A New Devotion - Between Obsession and Oblivious

Here's a new devotion that I wrote. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

Between Obsession and Oblivious 

When talking about the return of Christ, it seems as though a lot of Christians are on opposite ends of the spectrum. For example, on one hand, a whole bunch of believers seem almost obsessed by the Jesus’s return. I mean, these folks are consumed by what they call the “signs of the end.” And so they buy all the books, attend all the classes and accept all the prophets of doom, even those who’ve already predicted the day and the hour and who’ve been wrong over and over and over again. For these folks, the return is an obsession. On the other hand, though, there are many Christians who are totally oblivious, unconcerned, even ignorant of any kind of end. I’ll tell you, they drift along in as close to blissful ignorance are you can get, assuming there’ll always be time, until, all of a sudden, there isn’t. Now these seem to be the dwellers on the extremes.

But if we take what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians seriously, a better position might be somewhere between obsession and oblivious. You see, when we decide to live between the poles, we’ll be aware that our time on earth is limited. And whether it’s caused by Christ’s return or our demise, our physical lives will end, something of which COVID-19 has been a grim reminder. And when will the end come? Paul said it will be “like a thief in the night.” You see, this is something about which we can be aware without obsessing. And with this awareness can come preparation. Although we may not know when, how or why, we do know that our time here will end; therefore, our opportunities to show love to God and to one another is limited. And for that reason, now is the time to wake up and live in the light. Now is the time to put on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of hope. In other words, now is the time to become the men and women God called and equipped us to be. And I’ll tell you, when we do, we’ll be living somewhere between obsession and oblivious.