counter-measures

It’s hard to believe that this world isn’t going to go on forever. After all, it’s been around forever, at least relative to my existence. Intellectually I get that there’s an ending coming, but honestly I expect this old earth to still be here when I die. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what happens if it doesn’t.

I should, because being diverted by today may be exactly what the Devil is counting on. I know Jesus warns against it. Look at this, from Luke 21:34: 

“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.”

As that last day approaches, inexorably and at God’s pace, life, or maybe Satan, comes at us with the things that look like fun and the things that look scary. “Hey, look at this! This is what you should be focused on.” All of our pastimes and the things we do to medicate our hurts and the things that keep us awake at night act as misdirection, like a magician’s sleight of hand. All the while, we’re diverted from preparing for our eternal destiny, all that’s left for us when death or the end of the world comes to us. And Jesus, comparing it to a trap snapping shut, seems to think it will take us by surprise.

Be careful, he says. Be aware that this is our tendency. Be aware of the risk.

In the Army we talked a lot about counter-measures. Active counter-measures were the things we did to push back against the bad thing. Passive counter-measures were the safeguards we put in place to keep it from surprising us. Between them, these two kinds of counter-measures were how we protected against risk.

Maybe that’s a helpful way to look at this threat. Maybe we could use our devotions and prayers and other things like Christian music or godly friends to keep us spiritually sensitive to this temptation - those would be good passive countermeasures. And maybe we could look at daily disciplines like taking all of our pains and celebrations to the foot of the cross as petitions and praise as active countermeasures that resist our tendency to live these moments apart from God.

There are other ways, of course. But somehow, we have to figure out what it means for us to be careful that we’re not trapped with hearts weighed down by worldly considerations when Jesus comes again.