The other day a friend turned to me
and said, “Holls… Jesus is actually coming back.” We were sitting on a giant
cement block of a World War memorial looking over the Kansas City skyline. I
had never been there before this night and I sat staring at the lights that
illuminated the night sky. The cars moved, the sound of a train’s horn bounced
between the tall buildings and people, each with a story, walked through the winding
streets. And so we sat for three hours covering almost every stereotypical
conversation that usually occurs when looking out over a city of lights. We
were discussing how we sometimes cling to the very things that suck us dry. And
in that moment, oh in that sticky mess, how we so badly just want our hearts to
align with the logic of our minds. It is at precisely that moment where she
mentioned His second coming.
Everything in this life is unto
that day where Jesus rolls back the skies and comes for His bride. I feel so
often that part in the story becomes a footnote put aside for a later time. It
becomes this ethereal thing that each generation lazily and carelessly hands the responsibility over to their children and children’s children. But that
only makes us ignorant. The Day the Lord returns should be the center of our
life focus always. It should be the one event we prepare for more than any
other. Our society is so mesmerized by the accomplishments of the flesh that we
often miss the true meaning of life. We
cling to comfort. We search for easy living, a day-to-day walk that doesn’t
make us too tired or stressed. happiness thought to be found in luxury and
accomplishment; the more zeros in our bank account total makes us better than
another with one less. But in reality, making our first love a career or house
or even a fancy car is nothing in comparison to knowing the Lord. Jesus
isn’t going to come back one day and wonder what the interior of our car looks like;
His priority is what our heart is focused on. That must be our goal—our end. We must walk daily towards the
truth that He really is coming back.
I sit here in this prayer room and I
am hit with the terrifying truth that I now live in Missouri. For the past week
I have had random freak out moments that cause me to pause and shout, what the
heck have I just done! They have come when I am waiting for the officer to
write me my speeding ticket, when I’ve burnt rice twice and once again have to settle
with toast (that also burns), when I use a 50 cent fork to cook entire dinners.
It is those moments when my closest friends leave and I am left alone in a
house that is 85 degrees and infested with demon-possessed crickets that defy
the death trap of a lawn mower where I wonder how I landed here. Why I ever
chose to leave the sweet bliss of my hometown. But it is also in this prayer
room that I find my answer. As we sing, "for from you are all things and to you
are all things” I am reminded why I came. I am living to prepare for a wedding
that will be my gateway into eternity. These sweet moments in a prayer room I’ve
spent so much time in causes my heart to yearn for more of Him. Nothing else
matters when we are exposed to the love He has for us to be with Him where He
is.
My friend is right. Her heart is
focused on our upward calling as the inheritance of Jesus. In the midst of
trial and tribulation she turns to Her father, to the One she moved here for.
She is an intercessor fighting to know who our God is. She defies the world’s
lies of comfort and instead gazes upon the beauty of a Man who is actually
going to come to us. We don’t come here for easy living, but for a meaningful
chase after Jesus. He is coming back. He wants to marry His bride. He wants to
bring us perfect love. That truth makes everything else manageable. When I’ve killed my 7th
spider for the evening and my prayer room walk home buddy is 4408 miles away
and all that I’ve known in the last 6 months is gone, I can find comfort in His
unchangeable being. I can look back at His face and know He has not left. I
continually return to the basics, the milk and honey, and answer the simple
redundant question: why am I here? In a place that has no need for indoor steam
rooms I have come for only one thing: to know the One who has stolen my heart
and to prepare for a wedding feast that is promised to occur. He is my reason.
His 2nd coming is why I endure the taste of burnt toast. He has
stolen my heart. Against all opposition, all laziness, any movement that occurs
around me, I will run to my Bridegroom because one day there will be a wedding
and I want to be dressed accordingly.