What Matters

Last week Harold Camping told the world that life as we know it would end Saturday at 6pm.  Although his prophecy was proven to be false, life did end the next day for at least 116 people in Joplin, Missouri.  As I watched a video of 20 people taking refuge in a walk-in freezer, I got chills.  The people  in that freezer thought they were in their last moments on earth.   Above the sounds of the raging storm you can hear a woman crying out over and over again, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!"  Then you can hear a couple of guys saying, "I love you." "I love you guys." "I love everybody."
The video is too dark to be able to see anyone's face.  All you can do is listen to their voices and the sounds of the raging tornado.  Hiding in that small, dark place, it didn't matter to those people whether or not they were having a good hair day.  It didn't matter where they bought their clothes.  It didn't matter if they were a teacher or a businessman. They could have been rich or poor.  But, they were all equally helpless before the power of the storm.  And at what they thought was the end of life as they knew it, what mattered was their relationship to God and their relationship to others.
What if you were facing the last moments of your life?  Would the things that you are worried about today matter?  Would the things that you spend most of your time on matter?  Are you spending time developing your relationship with God and with others?  At the end of your life--whether it comes today, or on October 21 as Harold Camping is now saying, or 40 years from now--will you have taken the time for what matters?

'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:37-39)