I’ve been sitting here thinking that things are a mess. I don’t think I’ve ever seen things in such a mess. I may have and I’ve just forgotten how bad things appeared, but I don’t think so.

The plethora of natural disasters, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, fire and floods is astounding. The threat of terrorism, deviant behavior, the erosion of moral values, violent crimes, heightened racial tensions and the divisiveness in this nation, just to mention the debacle of the race for the presidency of these United States, is incomprehensible.

It seems as if Murphy’s Law is in effect: “Cheer up, things could get worse. So I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse.” If I weren’t a man of Christian faith and convinced that however things may appear to the contrary God is in control, I might throw up my hands in despair and yell, “Stop the world and let me off!”

But, being Biblically oriented, I go to the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 24, where Jesus says such things are to be expected. It’s the way of the world and it will continue to be until God puts an end to it, and be assured, He will! Jesus will come and that will put an end to the whole shebang.

You may ask, “Pray tell, when will that be?” I don’t know, I’m not privy to that information, I just know it’s coming. I’m in agreement with Dr. Tony Campolo. He says, “No one knows when the Second Coming of Christ will occur. There are books, such as those by Hal Lindsey, in which the authors claim to be able to decode Biblical prophecies and predict that the end is immediately at hand. Whenever I am asked to say something about the date of the Second Coming, I always answer, ‘I’m on the welcoming committee, not the program committee!’”

In the meantime, I’m going to go about my business confident that God’s in charge and will one day set things right. I like the way a rather obscure old hymn puts it: “Keep us Lord, O keep us cleaving to Thyself, and still believing; Till the hour of our receiving, promised joys with Thee.” And here is my favorite stanza, “Then we shall be where we would be; then we shall be what we should be; Things that are not now, nor could be, soon shall be our own.” Amen!

~ Dr. Darryl E. Maxwell, Retired Baptist Pastor