04/09/2024
The Great American Eclipse of 2024 is over. It was daylight. Then it wasn’t. Then it was again.
In Indianapolis, we were fortunate to be in the “path of totality” and it was a beautiful day for sky gazing, or so I heard. I was on a plane during the eclipse and missed out on fully experiencing this rare celestial event.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you couldn’t escape the hype leading up to the eclipse. And according to the people I talked with that did experience the total eclipse, it did not disappoint. But as with most phenomenal and unusual events, there is almost as much propaganda about end times. I received emails, Facebook posts, and even a paperback book in the mail connecting the eclipse to warning signs from God.
Whether or not you spend a lot of time thinking about these things, guess what? The end of the world is coming. No, I’m not going to carry a sign and shout through a bullhorn while I parade around Monument Circle. But the facts are the facts. This life is temporal, and either we’re going to “age out” or the earth is going to “age out,” but whichever comes first, we’d better get ready.
The eclipse may have come and gone, but the phrase “path of totality” has stuck in my mind. It does an equally good job explaining the kind of life God invites us to live as followers of Jesus Christ. We strive to follow the path of totality, a life given over fully to God.
The Apostle Paul helps us move closer to the path of totality with these words, “I appeal to you… brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
The Teacher writes that “God has placed eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Let’s choose to live as eternal beings in this temporal world, so that whatever comes, we’re living like we’ll die tomorrow, knowing that we’ll live forever.
Whatever you believe, are you willing to stake your destiny on it?
