You know all of that stuff that you leave undone in your yard because you’re just too busy, or it’s too hot outside? Yea, that stuff.
Well, this week we had another hurricane bearing down on us (like we need another one after 2 last year and we are still not totally rebuilt yet), so all of a sudden those things left undone become of great importance! Those limbs and scraps of wood lying around, the ones it seems like I can never get to, have to be picked up and put up, otherwise they could become flying objects that can break out windows, etc.
Suddenly, those miscellaneous things that like to take up space outside – toys, garden tools, bikes, and the random pieces of junk no one has had to time to haul to the dump have to either be tied down securely, thrown away if needed, burnt, or taken into the house.
So we start cleaning things up.
Was it easy? NO WAY! It’s hot, it’s humid and I’m working about 12 hours straight to get things at work ready and then have to come home and start on my house. So we pick things up, we take a load to the dump, we burn a pile of limbs and old wood, we stack and tie things down… Why? Because we have been told we are in, as it’s called it in the south, the cone of uncertainty – the possible path of the storm – and it’s coming Sunday!
Will it totally destroy our house – who knows? Probably not, because the predictions are showing the storm shifting the other direction, and we are on the outer edge of the cone this time, but exactly how bad things get could literally depend on small shift of 10-20 miles that the storm will make in the last 24 hrs. But when you live in coastal areas, you have to prepare as if it certain the eye of the storm is headed straight for you, because those shifts can and do happen! “Prepare as if your life and your property are in danger of a CAT 4 storm and possible total destruction” is what they tell us.
Why?
Because there’s a storm coming; we don’t know exactly what form or path it will take, but all of the weather experts and news channels and local officials agree that the storm IS coming Sunday afternoon, they’re issuing mandatory evacuations orders in some places, and you better make preparations or be in danger of losing everything!
As I stood leaning on my shovel trying not to fall over from exhaustion and watching my pile of debris burn, it made me think of our lives and the state of the world that we live in today; you know, we all have those “things” that we just never get around to fixing up or cleaning up – that pile of limbs in the yard that can suddenly turn into flying objects; that junk that aggravates you every time you notice it sitting there, but you think you are just too busy to take a little time to tend to it; or maybe it’s the junk in your heart and life that you know you ought to – you NEED to – make right, but you just somehow never find the “time”, or you’re too tired to go to church or say a prayer or talk to someone and try to get your life straight.
You know – THOSE things.
But…we have been told all of our lives that Jesus is coming back soon.
What if we knew with certainty that He was coming back Sunday afternoon? Would that change things? Would we suddenly find the time to haul some things to the trash? Would we burn some things? Would we began to straighten some things up and tie some things down?
You see, we don’t know, and cannot know, the exact day that Jesus is coming back (He doesn’t even know!) but we CAN know and see the signs of the times! We can know that we are in “the cone of certainty” (there’s nothing UNcertain about it!) and we can see by everything around us that He is coming very soon! The Bible scholars agree, the churches believe it, and the preachers are preaching it from the pulpits – He is coming soon! If we could, we would order a mandatory evacuation order and say,
“HEY, GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER NOW! HE IS COMING SOON!”
But no one can make you get ready – it’s totally up to you.
In every hurricane that has come, there are always those who refuse to leave town; there are always those who see no need to clean up and take care of their things. It seems like there are always stories of those who are injured in the storm because they refused to heed the warnings – even though everything and everyone around them are screaming at them to get ready for the storm.
When the winds come, the debris and junk someone left lying around will get picked up by the storm and thrown around; things will be broken – those flying projectiles may even cost a life.
All too often, someone dies because they refused to leave and get to safety.
Don’t be that person!
Don’t be the one who refuses to recognize the warning signs all around us.
Don’t be the one who refuses to straighten up your life because you’ve, “heard it all your life that Jesus is coming and He hasn’t showed up yet!”
Friend, we are closer now than ever! I believe we are in that “cone of certainty” – and He will be here very soon!
Please – take the time. MAKE the time to get your life right before it’s too late and the storm that’s coming to this world takes you with it, all because you refused to believe that the hurricane – or Jesus – is coming!