The Day After the World Didn't End

We're still here. After all the excitement and hoopla about the imminent departure of a select group of religious believers, it turns out that not only did that ship not sail, it was never in port to begin with. People have been calling it the Rapture. They don't mean that cool song by Blondie back in the '80s. The “Rapture” is the term used by many Christians for the anticipated return of Jesus, who will take all the believers to heaven prior to a period called the “Tribulation.” The Tribulation is a term for a really unpleasant time that the rest of the people will have to endure before the final end of the world. You don't want to be around during the Tribulation. I hear it will be a total bummer.

At any rate, the predictions of Harold Camping, the most recent of the end-time prognosticators, have been shown to be, at best, inaccurate. At worst, they've be shown to be fiction. The designated day and time came and went with nary a hint of an apocalypse. This resulted in confusion, derision or disillusionment, depending on your point of view. Some folks are going back to the drawing board under the assumption that they miscalculated along the way. Others are just tossing down their “The End is Near” signs and going home. Still others are taking great delight in pointing out the hubris of trying to make God fit into a convenient schedule.

I have to admit right here that I never bought into Camping's conclusions or his reasoning. I even joined the crowd that had fun with the predictions, finding great end-of-the-world songs to play. The popular choice seemed to be REM's “It's the End of the World as We Know It” with honorable mention going to “Rock 'n Roll Heaven” and “Who's Sorry Now.”

Today, as I think about it a bit more, I'm wondering if there are questions to be answered by those of us who never got into the dire predictions of the day and preferred parties to penitence. May 21^st was the day it was all supposed to happen. It didn't. Now what? For brother Harold and his folks, it's time to go back and readjust the calendar. What about the rest of us? What do we do now?

Whether or not you believe in an eventual end of the world with the populace being divided into the “saved” and the “lost,” it's a question that demands an answer. Today is the day after the world didn't end. Life is going on for at least another day. That gives you and me the chance to do something we didn't do yesterday. Whatever it is – looking for a new job, prioritizing life choices or learning to play the bass guitar – we have a new day in which to make it happen.

There are relationships that could benefit from a new day. There are people who haven't heard from us in a long time and need to. We've put off calling or writing or making the trip to visit them. We can change that today. There are people we haven't encouraged who need that from us. We can change that today. There are people who are waiting for us to notice that they are there – they've reached out to us and have received nothing in return. We can change that today.

Each day that we're greeted by the light of the morning is a day that the world didn't end. It's a day to live and to love in a way that is deeper and more complete than we did yesterday. As we consider what Harold and his happy campers should do, we would do well to turn the question on ourselves. We've been given a new day. What should we do with it?