Rapture

Chapter 5: Living in a world of May 22

On May 21, 2011, at 6 PM local time, I was in the check out line at Carrefour with my teammates buying stuff we are giving to the orphanage we volunteered at over the weekend (pictures on Monday). At that exact moment, when all people were going about their business, buying groceries, office supplies, and random stuff, they all came to a stop. The store got quiet, and everyone dropped what he or she was doing. They stood up straight, looked up and…

In Thailand, apparently they play the national anthem at 6 PM. So people stopped to pay their respects to King and Country (Thailand has a King, and unlike many European nations, they like their King). Afterwards, everyone resumed his or her activities. That was it. The world did not end, there was no earthquake, and there was no rapture, the world kept on spinning.

I feel this is important to talk about. Not only because it is relevant, but also because I am on a missions trip to Thailand. What does it mean to live in the world of May 22? For many of us, May 21 was normal, despite some snickering about the people believing it was the end. But for some, they staked everything on it. They quit jobs, cancelled appointments, and said goodbye to their loved ones. They did not even consider the possibility of being wrong. And yet nothing happened. For many of us, May 22 will be a normal day, but for some it is a day of disappointment. Sure some will believe the inevitable excuse of “my calculations were off” from the guy who predicted it, but others will be disillusioned, lost, and without a job to go back to. So what does it mean to live in a world of May 22?

Many of the world’s religions have some discourse on eschatology (the fancy greek word for the study of the end of time). Some are more vivid than others. Christianity has a very vivid description in the Book of Revelation. For two thousand years, people have tried to unlike the meaning of not only this book, but also the entire Bible in order to determine when the end of time was going to occur. Obviously, they were all wrong. We are still here more or less. But despite the constant failures at predicting the event, people still cling to the apocalypse for one reason or another. The biggest of these is hope.

The Book of Revelation is supposedly authored by a figure known as John of Patmos. He wrote during a time of persecution for Christians in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). For many, there was a feeling of hopelessness, of despair, and of great fear. In this atmosphere, John wrote about the end of this world and the creation of another. The new world would be one where God would reside on Earth with man, that there would be justice, harmony, and peace. The world would not only be restored, but it would be remade. It speaks to one of the most basic aspects of our humanity, the hope for a better world.

Flash forward to today. There is poverty, disease, war, and injustice in our world, and yet instead of it getting better, it seemingly is getting worse. Turn on the television, Google news, or listen to the radio and it seems that we are on a one-way trip to disaster. And because the stakes seem so big, people can begin to believe that there is no hope, no way out, except for God to set things right. There is nothing wrong with that, to hope for a better world. What is sad is when this sentiment that people have gets exploited for fame, power, and money. Even though nothing happened, how much airtime and publicity did Harold Camping (the Oakland, CA pastor that initially predicted this) receive? A whole lot. And inevitably, he will come out with a new prediction like he did in 1994 pointing to something in the future. So we will be here again in a few years.

And though the world did not end on May 21, we should remember that we have been given May 22 as a gift, just like every other day.

I spent my May 21 at an orphanage in Thailand. I have to admit, I do not like kids that much, particularly in high doses. But even my old Grinchy self couldn’t help but have fun with the rascals. For one reason or another these kids were here. And across the world, there are many other orphanages with kids, and some of those are not lucky enough to be in an area that gets a great deal of foot traffic from the outside world. It would be naïve of me to suggest that I alone, or my team alone, can save the world. But after spending weeks reading reports, looking at photos, and watching movies about the atrocities that happen in Burma, particularly to children, seeing these kids and the life in their eyes gives me hope for the future.

We can and we must build a better world for ourselves and our children. All of the problems of our world are human made, and, here is the beauty of that reality, they can be solved by humanity. The problems may seem big and daunting, but they are not insurmountable. It requires a leap of faith, to live in hope and not in fear.

And so, May 22 can be a normal day like any other day, or it can be a day where we begin the task of making a new and gentler world.