Thursday-The End is Near

The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.

1 Peter 4:7

Yes, I’m one of those people. You know the ones I’m talking about. When I say that I plan everything out, you better believe that I mean everything. And once I start down the path of following that plan, I can’t leave well enough alone. I keep checking and rechecking to make sure that I’m following the plan and that I haven’t missed anything.

It’s OK to make a plan. It’s also wise to see if you’re on course and following the plan. But to keep checking, checking, rechecking can make other people want to jump out of the way and head for the nearest exit. And if the plan includes directions I’m following to drive someplace, I want to warn them that leaving a car while still in motion is very dangerous.

We recently went on a day trip to a great nursery garden that’s about 90 minutes away. Since we’ve been there many times, I have all the directions firmly planted in my memory banks. In my brain, I can see all the sites, turns, and dangerous intersections. But watch out if something interrupts my plan.

We were enjoying the drive while talking when all of a sudden I saw smoke on the horizon. As we got closer, my worst fears were confirmed. There was an accident where a large 18-wheeler ran off the road. The police had stopped all traffic while the fire department moved in.

Immediately, I saw my carefully created plan begin to crumble. I frantically started searching Google Maps for a way around this terrible accident. But we were in the middle of cattle country, so there weren’t any roads to anywhere. I was forced to do the very thing I hate most in the world.

You know what that is. Instead of doing something, I could only stop and think. All my good planning was put on hold. There was nothing to do. I was in a holding pattern. It wasn’t going to do any good to go off the deep end screaming, even if all that yelling was only inside my head.

This is exactly what Peter is telling us and his audience of 2,000 years ago. There comes a time when running around, doing, working, and achievement are only a waste of time and anergy.

It probably sounds weird, but there comes a time when God wants us to come to the end of ourselves. When we’ve done everything we can think of and there’s just nothing more to be done. No more planning. No more doing. Just stopping. And it usually comes when the end is near.

This is exactly where Moses is. He’s the adopted grandson of the richest and most powerful man in the world: Pharaoh of ancient Egypt. He had everything. The finest education. The finest food. The most expensive clothing. I bet he even had dual chariots in his garage.

But when Moses sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he stepped in and murdered that guy. Grandson or no grandson, Pharaoh had to act and have him executed. After all, it was a direct attack on Pharaoh’s power.

What happens next just makes me hang my head because I’ve been there. And if we’re honest, we’ve all been that. At the same place. Everyone on planet Earth has done something terribly wrong and we deserve to be arrested and punished. Maybe not by the police, but we’ve all lied, stolen, broken God’s and man’s laws. But there’s hope in what happens next.

When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.

Exodus 2:15

Did you notice where Moses stopped his running? He stopped and sat down by a well. Not an empty well, but a well. Wells are more than just a hole in the ground. Their purpose is to hold life-giving, refreshing water. If they leak or are empty, then they’re not really a well.

But Moses coming to this particular well wasn’t the result of careful planning or specific GPS coordinates. He didn’t follow the turn-by-turn directions from his phone. And yet, this was no accident. Moses must of thought that end was near.

Even though he was far from God, God was still watching over him. God didn’t download the plan for the rest of Moses’ life either. But what God did was the next step in a long line of next steps. God starts with this kind and loving act of showing him a place to stop running. A place to sit down. A place to take time and drink from the cool water of that well.

This may sound strange but think about it. You can’t sit down if you’re still running. When are we going to come to the end of ourselves and realize that there are problems and people that we just can’t fix. It’s at times like this that we need to stop running and sit by the well that God has brought us to with all his loving kindness. Please, sit down.

Noodling Questions

• Describe a time when you thought that the end was near.

• How does being too busy to pray keep us from God’s best for our lives?

• Why won’t you stop running and sit by the well? Explain.