I attended a lecture this week from teacher and author Michael Goheen. He said something striking and it's worth noting. Here's my paraphrase: how you understand the end of the world will inform what you believe your mission to be.

The band, R.E.M., used to close many of their concerts with their song 'it's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine.' Interestingly, the song is informative and not far from Goheen's point. To feel fine about your mission, you must come to grips with what you believe about the end of the world. But, for many, the world may never end and for others, this is simply paranoia. But, think about it. Goheen's point is that the end of the story informs what we believe our part to be in the story. In fact, Goheen writes,

 

 Heaven, which has been separated...by sin...now is joined in harmonious unity with earth.

 

 (it's worth reading the entire article here)

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This is just becoming all too familiar. The first reports, the death toll climbing every half-hour or so, the news of those who survived, grieving for those who did not. I first learned about the earthquake today in Chile from Twitter - from Alyssa Milano on Twitter, in fact, retweeting photo images from the New York Times. I jumped on Facebook and learned that several friends of mine have relatives in Chile; thankfully, all reports are good news so far.

As I continued combing through news reports, I discovered that there was also an earthquake in Japan this morning. Then I heard further news - the warning of an impending tsunami. I have just been looking at the images on the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center web site, and I see nations and cities along the Pacific coast that are now at risk: Japan, Hawaii, New Zealand, Tonga and many other place.

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Hollywood has had a long time obsession with how the world will end. Films such as Armageddon, Deep Impact, The Terminator series, The Matrix series, and films like Independence Day all have an apocalyptic theme to them and get us to question what the “end” will actually be like? Moreover, what comes next? Heaven? The New Earth? New dimensions? Roland Emmerich’s new film, 2012, takes on those questions by beginning to deal with 2012 theory and “end time” ideologies. Emmerich has done a couple of different films that deal with elements of the end of the world; Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow also have similar themes.

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