The End is Near(ish)

A friend of mine and I were chatting over lunch. Professional topics had occupied us for about half an hour, but once the business was done our conversation took a theological turn. My friend asked, “Do you think the end is near?”

Civil unrest, escalating violence, sexual exploitation, political corruption, natural disasters, and human misery compete with each other for time on cable news and space on social media feeds.

Surveying this evidence, my friend admitted a sense of apprehension bordering on dread. Things are falling apart so rapidly and so completely, he said, that there may be no putting them back together again.

The news frequently overwhelms me, too. For me it’s something like this: I can’t live with the crazy anymore. Sometimes I go to bed thinking this is the looniest thing I’ve ever heard only to wake up to a whole new, supersized version of insanity.

My…