The End of the World

I have just finished watching the movie "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," which is now available on Netflix. It is the story of a young boy coping with the aftermath of his father's death in the World Trade Center on September 11. It is extremely sad and incredibly emotional, and I found myself remembering that day and what it was like.

I was thirteen, and old enough to know how momentous it was. I remember watching the second plane hit the tower on TV. I remember watching the Twin Towers fall. I remember that the entire school was glued to the news until parents complained and made them turn it off.  I remember the entire country pulling together. I remember the whole nation being traumatized by this event. I remember watching them sing "Amazing Grace" on Capitol Hill on the TV that night. I remember the television specials that aired for the rest of the year, and the shows that were not aired because they were too reminiscent of what happened. I remember the national grief and the international support expressed by America's allies.

Then I think back to the Orlando shootings or the Paris attacks or the San Bernardino shootings and I think: this is becoming more common. We are not responding as we did. Instead of nations coming together, we change our profile picture on Facebook to represent our "support" and start politicizing the deaths of innocent people. We are becoming desensitized. Terrorism happens all the time now. We cannot even stop for it anymore.

And I think how easy it is for people to look at the world and decide that Yahshua must be coming back soon because look how awful it is and it must be near the end. We are, after all, destroying ourselves.

I don't know about Yahshua's return date (even He didn't know, He said), but I can tell you that we do not end in destruction, but redemption. Because then I remember that Yahweh is sovereign and none of this takes Him by surprise. I remember His plan and purpose that He set in place from the Beginning. I remember that it is not limited by nations or able to be thwarted by terrorism. I remember that it supersedes circumstance and makes all things good.

Incredibly, He can fix this. Not in the way that you might think, and not in the way that will leave the world like it was before terrorism began. No, He will take us back even further, back to the Beginning, to His original plan for the world.

So while I can look at the news and at society and at all the horrible choices some people are making and the lack of honor for the plan that Yahweh made when He started this whole creation business, I can also see that His plan is still there, still in motion, still redeeming. And I have the chance to choose.

Do I choose to give up and await the destruction of the world, to be mired in depression and hopelessness? Do I choose to strive and attempt to change things in my own strength and with my own resources? Or do I choose to submit to Yahweh's plan and receive my access to Heaven's resources and be a part of the remnant, the redemption, the fruit that will remain when Babylon meets its inevitable end?

Because I can be part of the destruction or part of the redemption, and the End of the World looks a lot like the Beginning.