The world was supposed to end, according to some guy out in California, a little over a week ago, on May 21, 2011 at 6 PM. It didn't. I read in today's Washington Post that he is now saying that was the end of the SPIRITUAL world, that the end of the PHYSICAL world will be October 21, 2011--on that day the righteous will be taken up into heaven and the rest of us, or rest of you as the case may be, will be left to perish in a not pleasant way. It won't. Or at least I don't think it will. Why? Well, I don't think God is that predictable, and at several junctures God has told us that we can't predict the day or hour. Living righteously isn't something we are to do in the hope of being taken out of the world in a big cloud. We live righeously because we are striving to love God with everything we have and are and hope for, as well as manifesting that love in those around us. If we are Christians, as I am, we believe that Jesus Christ came into our world as being God and Human to serve among other things as an example of how we are to be.
The world ends and the world begins many many times in our lifetimes. The people in Joplin MO watched the end of their world as the deadliest tornadoes in US history ripped apart their homes. And yet, it was only a few days before they were rebuilding again. A divorce, a job loss, the death of a loved one, a financial setback, a psychotic break--all of these things signal the end of one world and the beginning of another. It is love that gets us from death to life.
On May 21, 2011 at 6PM I was planting rosebushes, oblivious to the notion that I might not be around to admire them. I imagine on October 21, 2011 at whatever the appointed hour is I will be doing something equally mundane, but hopefully as personally fulfilling.
My advice? Live your life as if today is your last and your first and everything in between. Don't worry about when the world will end, or whether you will be taken up or left behind. Love the best you can, and everything will be fine.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
New Office, New Month
Beginning tomorrow, May 2, I will be in a new office space. I'm still in Reston, still actually at the same address, but on the other side of the building. This move was by no means sudden, we have been hearing about it for six months or so. And I still have the same cubicle up in Linthicum, that I occupy a couple times a month. And two of my colleagues from the old office will be in the next two cubes over, with a few other colleagues scattered about. So it won't be radically different.
But it will be somewhat different. The end of March, my colleagues were laid off of their contract, and one week later the one colleague who was on my contract moved out of the area. So suffice it to say that a room filled with 20 cubibles dwindled from being almost completely full in October 2009 down to seven people by the end of this April. That room started to feel like a big cavern. Deadly quiet most of the time. In the new space I and my two colleagues will be surrounded by other workers, constantly on the phone. Did I mention there's a window and natural light? In the old place it was windowless.
Usually I don't like moving, particularly when I don't choose to move. But this time is different. I am looking forward to settleing into my new digs. The old office just wasn't the same when my colleagues, who had become friends, were no longer there. Every time I walked in and sat down at my desk I would miss not having Carolyn and Tanya right in back of me. The thing that made the old office so special was the relationships. But now it is time for a new physical environment and new relationships.
The new month, the month of May, is much like my office move, the physical environment is different, but the season is much the same, with plants growing and blooming beautifully. New environment, new relationships, but with important anchors in the past. Maybe it is no coincedence that we celebrate Easter and the resurrection every year sometime between the end of March and the end of April. By the time May rolls around we are ready to move on. So for me this year it is a new office and along with it a new month, a new playing out of the aftermath of the recurrection.
But it will be somewhat different. The end of March, my colleagues were laid off of their contract, and one week later the one colleague who was on my contract moved out of the area. So suffice it to say that a room filled with 20 cubibles dwindled from being almost completely full in October 2009 down to seven people by the end of this April. That room started to feel like a big cavern. Deadly quiet most of the time. In the new space I and my two colleagues will be surrounded by other workers, constantly on the phone. Did I mention there's a window and natural light? In the old place it was windowless.
Usually I don't like moving, particularly when I don't choose to move. But this time is different. I am looking forward to settleing into my new digs. The old office just wasn't the same when my colleagues, who had become friends, were no longer there. Every time I walked in and sat down at my desk I would miss not having Carolyn and Tanya right in back of me. The thing that made the old office so special was the relationships. But now it is time for a new physical environment and new relationships.
The new month, the month of May, is much like my office move, the physical environment is different, but the season is much the same, with plants growing and blooming beautifully. New environment, new relationships, but with important anchors in the past. Maybe it is no coincedence that we celebrate Easter and the resurrection every year sometime between the end of March and the end of April. By the time May rolls around we are ready to move on. So for me this year it is a new office and along with it a new month, a new playing out of the aftermath of the recurrection.
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