at the end

I'm traveling today. Sitting in the airport in Montgomery, AL, waiting to fly to Atlanta and then Grand Rapids, MI. I'm posting now because there is no free wireless in the Atlanta airport. Why is that? In the 6-gate Montgomery Airport there is free wireless, but not in the bajillion-gate Atlanta airport. I don't know why. I'm sure if someone tried to explain it to me in technical terms I wouldn't understand it. But I have a feeling it has something to do with money. It's amazing how so many things come back to money.

Last night, I watched a DVD of one of the funniest comedians I have ever seen, Tim Hawkins. He tells the story of being in an airport, a guy comes up to him and says, "Man, those planes sure do come in low" (just keep reading that line if it doesn't make sense).

I'm still thinking about the challenge that I gave to the students this past Wednesday. We talked about Christ's return, what it would look like, how it would happen, and what it would mean for everyone. Our bottom line was this: all that really matters, the only common denominator in all of Jesus' "end times" talks, is that we had better be ready. And I don't think He's just talking about making sure that we have our ticket!

One of the "events" that Christians like to overlook is when Jesus judges believers based on their works. We only key-in on whether our name is in the Book of Life or not, and we organize our entire life around that.

"If my name is in the Book, then I can just show up for an hour on Sunday, feel forgiven, and then do what I want until the next Sunday" (for more on this, read "Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

We tend to forget that we will be judged for our words, actions, and thoughts.

I'm convinced (by nothing else than my own belief) that a part of our "so what did you do with your talents I gave you"-judgement is that Jesus is going to go over every single name of every single person we had an opportunity to share the Good News with. And He's going to show us where we stepped up to the plate, and where we compromised His name and His glory.

May each of us step up to the plate. May we hold each other accountable. And may we not shy away from sharing the greatest story ever!