URGENT NEWS: HAROLD CAMPING HAS IT ALL WRONG!
The End time is actually, Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 5:58:06:21 PM
Consider yourself forewarned!
It is by no fault of Mr. Camping. Just a slight miscalculation on his part really. There was no way for him to know that a human day is actually a few milliseconds off from a God day equaling a thousand earth bound years, so when you calculate in the “off” factor you soon discover that the rapture will take place earlier than expected which could throw off the whole countdown, and then leave the rapturees less prepared for their long awaited day of meeting their Lord in heaven.
Now on a serious note, I thought to write this blog when I ran into Stop n’ Shop yesterday to pick a few items and right when I walk into the store I heard two ladies having a conversation about the end of time coming this Saturday. I knew of this event already and actually posted it on my Facebook page because of the humorous nature of someone thinking they knew what Christ himself didn’t know, but when I heard this conversation I was alarmed at the terror I heard in one woman’s voice. I hung around the aisle, picking at the produce, in order to appear as if I was not overtly ease-dropping in on their conversation.
It started with woman one saying as loud as could be, “Don’t bother worrying about the game. Didn’t you hear the world is ending on Saturday?!”
The second woman appearing caught off guard said, “Yes, I heard. Well, what can you do?”
The first woman didn’t let it go, “The Christians say its all in the bible. Its all there in black and white.”
This is the part that left me mentally shaking my head. The Christians say? Really –the Christians?
Then the second woman continued with, “Hey, well, if it does end we won’t be around to know it anyhow, so what does it matter, right?” as she shrugged her shoulders.
To this the first woman answered, “Hey, it just may be real. It’s scary to think of.”
To which the second woman repeated, “We won’t know it happened because we’ll be dead so, oh well!”
At this point, I left because you can only squeeze the grapefruit for so long until people start to question your motives! But it stuck with me. The emotions that rumors like this provoke in people is fascinating; from paranoia to avoidance to humorously shrugging it off to quiet contemplation. There is something about the end of the world coming that makes us react. 
Maybe it’s a good thing we begin to think about the end. Maybe it gives us the power to start over or put a fire under our proverbial asses to do something about our current course of progress. After all, not all progress is good. Cancer progresses and it’s never a good outcome, ever! You never hear someone say my cancer is progressing nicely! Life progresses too, but with life we have a choice as to how we impact its progression. In the book of human history, we write the story. We have a choice as to how we progress as a species. And its in the choices we make that will define our legacy as a species. Will we, as a species, or even as a generation within the species, be the lesson that should never be repeated, or the message that stays as hope for millennia to come? Will we rise above our greed and selfish dedication to just getting by or getting more, or will we break free from the fear that binds us and be the brave people who first stepped out of the cave of uncertainty to think anew?
We have the choice to define ourselves in greatness. And that greatness won’t be the ability to produce the clearest 3D televisions on the market, or having the newest iphones or ipads, or an SUV that gets outstanding fuel efficiency, but in how we cared for each other and all life on this planet. Because the truth just is — it requires caring for life to make life better — and we’re the stewards of this planet. Like it or hate it, a fact is a fact, we have risen to the height of evolutionary progress. Now what are we going to do with it?
I recently picked up a scroll with a poem written by the Dali Lama called “The Paradox of our Time”.
Here it is:
Paradox of our Time
We have bigger houses but smaller families;
More conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, but less judgment;
More experts, but more problems;
More medicines, but less healthiness;
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,
but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.
We build more computers to hold more information
to produce more copies than ever but have less communication.
We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;
Tall men but short character;
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It’s a time when there is much in the window,
but nothing in the room.
I hung it in my bedroom right above my small fish tank, so everyday when I go to feed the fish I am reminded of the problems we created by trying to make life a convenience. Life is not easy. Its not a picnic It’s not meant to be convenient. It’s meant to be a present and we are meant to be present in it, not escape it, but live it to the fullest. 
We try to make life easier. We want a perfect lawn, so we water it every day. We don’t want to remember to go out and turn the water on so we use a timer because of this it turns on even when it rains. Then we complain about the grass being too high and now we have to mow it all the time! We’re just too tired to do it because we work long hours to pay for everything, including the water bill, which is astronomically high because we need green grass because the neighbors do. Even so, we go out and buy a ride’em lawn mower(possibly on credit) to make life easier for us. Now we feel better, but we have only an hour to cut it because we have to hit the gym because we need to stay in shape because with our long work schedule in the office to pay for everything(including watering the lawn on rainy days) we fail to get exercise (riding a lawn mower doesn’t cut it, but pushing one might). But no matter, so we hop in our car and on the way to the gym we notice the town sign saying, “Water shortage. Use outside water on Tuesdays and Thursday” and we become annoyed because what are we going to do now?. Then when we get home from the gym, we complain about what to do because if we listen to the sign we fear the grass won’t look green, but regardless of how we feel we wake up the next morning to do nothing differently. Just complain! This is our life!
We complain about life because we make life more difficult then it needs to be. If we accept that life is not meant to be convenient then we are left with an opportunity to do something great with the life we “know” we have. This is the gift of human life, to know we are alive and choose the way we are going to live it.
Right now I have a robin redbreast sitting on her eggs right outside my kitchen window. I smile at her dedication to those incubating little chicks stuck in a shell. I was so enthralled that I did some research on how long it will take for them to hatch. It takes about two weeks before mama sets out to find the worms to nourish them into full fledged participants in life. Then it’s another few weeks before they leave the nest and she’ll repeat her life duties of building a nest, laying eggs and so on.
She doesn’t have a choice, or rather, she isn’t aware she has one because she lacks the self recognition to know she is alive. It doesn’t demean her importance, or the impact she has on life. I know that her dedication brings me joy and I know she is keeping life moving forward balanced with nature. I know because I know life. I know I’m alive and through this evolutionary step forward we as humans are aware of all life, but its not the knowing that will define us, its WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH THAT KNOWING that will mark our existence as commendable or condemnable. And we have a choice on that outcome. 
So when people like Harold Camping tell you that he has the answers to when the world ends, tell them, “I know differently.” Our story isn’t done being written. And for the record, this isn’t a Christian prophecy. All one needs to do is hear Christ’s own words to know this is just the ravings of a self deluded man. In Mark 13:32 it states, ““But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Read full passage concerning the end times here
No one knows when the end will come, but as with all things in life an end must come for a new beginning to emerge. Change will happen. It is happening as you read this! We are changing, the world is changing, and our gift to life should be for all things to change for the better by our individual hands. And being aware, we have the ability to create great things. It’s our choice, our legacy, and our path to walk.
Mr. Camping can have his rapture. I prefer to stay here and do God’s work because here is where life will carry on until…well, only God knows! And until that time, its our choice what our future will bring.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY?rel=0&w=480&h=390]