What Does “Ready” Look Like?
By Dr. Brandon Steenbock, Family Minister
Luke 12:40 – You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Late May, the morning air was already thick and warm in our small Minnesota town. I had a stop to make, supplies to pick up for an event, and was heading to the grocery store at the end of town. Across the street was an empty lot, and there I saw a family sitting on the ground in front of an RV. They had a cardboard sign in front of them: “Sold everything to get to California for the end of the world. Out of gas and low on food. Please help.”
The end of the world. A few weeks earlier, a man named Harold Camping had made news with his prediction that the world would end on May 21st, 2011. Across the country, people who listened to his radio show and believed his prediction made decisions that counted on it being true. Many felt that it would be good to be near his radio station when it happened.
But Jesus didn’t come back in May of 2011. Jesus still hasn’t come back. And you can bet that some of those people who believed Harold Camping have lost faith that Jesus is ever coming back. But others have learned an important lesson – Jesus meant it when he said he would come at an hour you do not expect him.
No one can search the Bible and calculate the end of the world. No one is going to get a special revelation from God so that he can put out the date of Jesus’ return on TikTok. Jesus isn’t going to send a spiritual memo ahead telling you, “On my way, be ready in a week.”
But Jesus told us there would be signs. He said there would be natural disasters. He said there would be an increase in wars and violence. He said people would become less and less loving toward each other. And he said the Gospel would go out throughout the world.
All that has happened. Jesus could come back any day. The key isn’t to look for a day for his coming. It’s to look inward and ask the question, “Am I ready for him to come back?”
What does that mean? What does “ready” look like? It looks like repentance; you’re not holding onto your pet sins and saying, “Eventually I’ll stop doing this, but not today.” It looks like confession; you’re honest with yourself and God, and with others, about your need for forgiveness. It looks like trust; you hold tightly to Jesus, believing that he has the power to save you when the day comes. It looks like freedom; you hold loosely to the things of this world and tightly to the promises Jesus has made about the world to come. It looks like service; you do what you can to show God’s love to others by the things you do.
You don’t need a date on the calendar for any of that. That’s all stuff you can have today. So the next time someone announces on social media that they have the date of Jesus’ return, just shake your head and walk away. And the next time you find yourself wondering when you’re going to shake that sinful habit, find someone to confess to and get forgiveness and help.
And the next time you see a family on the side of the road that gave up everything because they believed a lie, go buy them some groceries and a tank of gas. And then remind them that Jesus still loves them and is still coming back for them. It just might not be when they expect.