it's the end of the world as we know it (but i feel fine)

in 1999, alternative rock and grunge music lost its decade long reign on American radio. with that came the demise of WENZ 107.9 'The End', a Cleveland based alt-rock station. on their final day of broadcast WENZ played R.E.M.'s cult classic "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) on a continuous loop for 24 hours. some thought and hoped it was a joke and never would have predicted its end but it wasn't a joke. the times had changed and so had musical taste. the next day, the day "The End" became an urban R&B/Hip Hop station and by and large - across the nation alternative music died.

all good things must come to an end... so they say. when there's too much of a good thing - things are bound to crash and burn... to burn out rather than fade away.

but with that has been man's attempt to understand the in's and out's of this God-given planet. with that comes man's attempt to predict the future. listeners couldn't predict the end of 'The End' but the money makers in radio saw the writing on the wall and knew when to make a change.

Remember Y2K? the entire planet was in an uproar over the potential and predicted world wide shutdown of all things electronic. banks would certainly fail. Power grids would shut off. Chaos would no doubt ensue. but this time, retro R.E.M. music was not needed because the Y2K hypothetical didn't happen and the joke was on us.

and now we turn our attention to the here and now... the present tense... a religious group out of Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania is claiming that on May 21, 2011 The end is near. eBible Fellowship claims to know the end is coming at the end of this week. That's the end of the world. so enjoy your last few days on the late great planet earth. get your bucket list out. do what you got to do.

but i hear it's supposed to be nice this weekend. Sunny and in the 70's. Saturday, May 21st sounds like a good day to mow the lawn but now i'm wondering if that's even going to be necessary. of course, whether those end of the world predictions come true or not might not matter. the forecast could change to rain and ye ole weather man's predictions could be wrong, too.


predict, predict, predict. we spend so much time trying to figure things out... trying to come to our own conclusions before the rest of the story plays out. but what if we gave up predicting and just lived life, day in and day out... to the fullest. this life we were all given, after all, is a gift, isn't it? (John 10:10 says so). choose life. the movie Trainspotting taught me that.*

Also, Mark 13:32 tells us that we can't know when the end will actually end. but we can waste our time predicting and we can waste our time on scare tactics... we can waste our money on billboards and the like. we can even blow it all listening to lame political pundnets or watching old reruns of I Love Lucy on television while eating popcorn and ice cream on the couches of our lives.

or we can live. and come what may, even when things don't go our way - we can carry on. there is a plan for our lives that we may need to tap in to. Psalm 20:4-5 reminds us of that:

⁴ May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
⁵ May we shout for joy over your victory
and lift up our banners in the name of our God.

May the LORD grant all your requests.

if you take the time to read Psalm 20 in its entirety, you'll see that all it takes is trust.

don't predict. trust. in God.

i am reminded of that great scene near the end of The Shawshank Redemption where Andy says to Red "Get busy living or get busy dying."

life is short. too short to predict. too short to let opportunity pass you by. to short to not poke the box. to short to not ask questions and seek answers. too short to not play soccer or take that extra long bike ride through the countryside.

drink good coffee, have meaningful conversations, say 'I love you', cherish quality music, etc. because you never know when it might be taken from you. but why waste time trying to figure that out? embrace the life given to you. and trust God's plan for your life, too.

let's not spend time waiting for the end - only to realize that this gift of life given to us had never been fully opened and appreciated.

Choose life.