At sixty years of age, Maria and Paul had a beautiful life. High school sweethearts, they had four children, five grandchildren, a successful business, good friends and a fabulous beach house. They felt very blessed. Their strong faith in God saw them through some difficult challenges. Without warning, Paul died suddenly. Maria was devastated. Why did God do this? Why did God allow this to happen? An indescribable depth of sadness weighed heavily upon her heart. She felt betrayed by the God she thought was looking out for her. She was overwhelmed by despair. Have you ever experienced such incredible and deafening sadness? Where is God in all of the pain?

We can embrace and relish each moment of our lives as a sacred sacrament or nonchalantly and robotically attend to what life presents. We have our feet in two worlds. One is holy and sacred, and the other is profane and secular. Which one has the greater claim on us? To what do we devote most of our energy? We can easily be consumed with the particular demands and essentials of daily life: family, work, obligations, and the like, that we don’t really notice anything more than what is right before us. We become masters at “doing” and neglect our need to “savor.” Jesus reminds his friends that “as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away.”

It’s not unreasonable to think that if God wanted to make a statement he could do so in a very dramatic way. After all, he spoke through a burning bush that didn’t actually burn, parted the Red Sea, sent manna to the Israelites from the sky, cured lepers, healed the sick and cast out demons. All of that is pretty dramatic stuff, and they made statements! Now, Jesus hangs dying on a cross. He has been referred to as a king. Considering all of the miracles Jesus did in his short time on earth, isn’t one more in order? If Jesus came down off of the cross, defied death, and parted the waters of suffering and death, onlookers, believers and unbelievers alike, would take notice. It would prove who God is and show us what God wants us to do. Or would it?

Many make it their life’s ambition to determine precisely when the world will end. By reading the signs of the times, consulting scripture, or looking to prophetic predictions that are sometimes centuries old, they claim a certain credibility in being able to do so. Is all that necessary to know? Even when his disciples pointedly ask him this question, Jesus does not directly answer. While the end will inevitably come, Jesus points out that there is a lot we need to do first: remain faithful, face persecution, endure suffering, face wars and insurrections, and give testimony. Human beings tend to focus their energies on the wrong kingdom. Consumed with all of the things we have built and seeking to preserve them, we forget that we belong to a different kingdom, the Kingdom of God.

Facing her 50th birthday and recently diagnosed with Type-2 Diabetes, Rebecca was at a crossroads. Realizing that she had neglected her health and fitness over the years and allowed herself to gain significant weight, she felt poorly about who she had become. While it was easier to give in to temptation and the gratification received from food, her family needed her, and she desired a long life. She had an image of the person she could become. She wanted to be more trim, focused, disciplined, and healthy. She liked what she saw in her mind and set out on a journey to create it. With great effort, she succeeded and accomplished her goals. When we have a goal ahead of us, we are more apt to do whatever is necessary to get it.