Repent!

I know that there are a lot of people out there that think that the End Times are here, because there are more forest fires every year, or tornadoes, or hurricanes, or whatever. Being in the company of one of these people is always amusing in some odd sort of way, especially in that, because of their honest sincerity, you can’t help but wonder whether 1: they’re completely insane or 2: they are right.

Having grown up Pentecostal, attending three services a week each for more than 2 hours at a time, clapping my hands along to the music, speaking in Tongues, saying an occasional “Hallelujah”, I know what this culture is. And, there is no denying, that part of this mentality has properly been grilled into my brain. Seeing bad doomday films à la “Left Behind” as a child, being cared past all recognition, and in my own church, was enough to ingrain in me the fear that the End Times ARE actually near and that I should watch out.

Now that I am an adult, and much more on the liberal end of the Christian spectrum, my belief that the End Times are near is just not there anymore. I needn’t be focused on such trivialities anyway. Every Christian culture since immediately after Christ’s death was absolutely obsessed with the Second Coming, and most were sure it would happen in their lifetimes. I am too busy living the life God has given me to second-guess his/her decisions about the future of the world. Sorry.

But, this week seems like a sign from God, somehow, I have to admit. Anytime that something happens that is completely out of my realm of understanding, I have to revert to my Bible thumping days, I guess.

How could anyone walk into a schoolhouse to murder little girls? And, as if to make this sign even more dramatic, how could anyone intentionally murder an Amish person, let alone many, let alone little girls. LITTLE GIRLS! Little girls who had walked to school in their bare feet. Whose community is known throughout the world for its pacifism.

If God were to make a statement that the end times are near, what would be his most dramatic way of saying it? The way that this drama has hit my heart seems even harsher a reminder than if God let a Marquis drop from the heavens with “The End Times are near” printed in neon on it.

I do not believe in evil, per se. But, it is in times like these when mental disease or some cultural violence does not in any way explain it away. Evil must have been in Pennsylvania that day, somehow. The Devil himself, even though I don’t believe in him either, must have been there. How can this be? Those poor little girls at the beginning of their lives, gone, just gone.

This is such a sad commentary on life in 2006. No one, I guess, is safe from the violent nature of out modern society.