December 21st, the Internet, and the Mayans, and why they shouldn't have anything to do with each other.

So, it is December 22 and we are all still here....AWKWARD!

I mean, it really was a long shot in the first place. The probability that the Mayans could predict the earth ending centuries before it actually would happen, on top of the fact that the Bible says nobody knows when the end will take place, the probability is VERY slim. Nobody anywhere knows, and definitely not the Mayans! I mean, our weatherman can only predict the weather accurately about 50% of the time! So how could Mayan’s predict the end of the world so long before the actual date?

Not to mention the fact that the Mayan calendar says NOTHING about the end of the world. It doesn't have a post-it on it saying, “End of the world calendar” or anything. I mean, if I was told to make a calendar that lasts for a REALLY long time, I would not have enough room to put infinite years. I would have to stop at some point. And I might be offended if people in future generations said, “Wow! That kid just didn't have the room on this tablet to put all years of the future, OBVIOUSLY, THE WORLD ENDS WHEN THE CALENDAR ENDS! But maybe not. Maybe I would be flattered if people said that! I mean, that is comparable to being called all knowledgeable! If I know when the world ends, then I must know everything! Maybe all I need to do to freak people out in the future is make a wooden tablet that says “The world ends on April 18th, 2207”, and then bury it somewhere. That’ll work. The Mayans did it.

This is just common sense. Just because my calendar ends December 31st, doesn't mean the world does too. It is crazy! In fact, I have heard about all the crazy things people are doing because it is the “end of the world”. Apparently every time someone puts forth the idea that the world is ending on a specific date, that gives people the freedom to go crazy. “Really, the world ends tomorrow? Well, I had better go light myself on fire and intoxicate myself, just so I know what it is like before I die.”

Okay okay, all joking and making fun aside, has anyone ever stopped to ask the question, “What if the world ACTUALLY ends today?” I mean, when someone says the world ends on December 21st, and everyone jokes and/or freaks out about it, does anyone wonder what would happen if the world really DID end today? What if you were sinning, without regret, and at THAT moment, God decided to start the Rapture? Now I don’t claim to know the exact details of the Rapture, but I believe that when you know you are sinning, and you do it in defiance of God, you are abusing his free gift of life. I don’t know if that is enough to keep you out of Heaven, but if it is, and the world “ended”, you would feel pretty bad wouldn’t you? I was thinking about this today, in light of everyone saying the world ends. I thought, “If the world ends, have I lived my life to please God, or have I not been as focused on God as I should be?” The Bible says that when the Rapture happens, it will happen in an instant. Nobody knows when, but when it does, God will be like a “thief in the night”, meaning you don’t expect it. You don’t usually notice or expect a thief in your house every night, just like you don’t expect the rapture every day.

Now, it would be crazy to become a security freak and prepare with a bazooka and grenade every day, just in case a thief breaks in, just like you probably shouldn't sit completely still all day, only sleeping and eating so you don’t run any risk of sinning. All I am saying is that if you know you are sinning, or not living like God wants you to, you would feel pretty bad if all of the sudden you were in front of him, with him judging you. Of course, it isn’t like in one instant, he will all of the sudden know everything you did wrong in your life. He sees you all of the time. Ever think of that aspect?

“Oh, I will just take this one extra cookie. Nobody will know.”

BEEEP! Wrong! God sees you. The only difference between the final judgement and him seeing you at this very moment is that you won’t be able to ignore him in the former situation. He still knows what you are doing. So even if everyone says it is the end of the world, that is no excuse to go out and sin just because it is your last chance to ever get drunk, or last chance to eat a whole cookie jar of cookies, or anything else. If it is the real end of the world (as opposed to the Mayan version), then don’t go crazy.

But this is all taking it a bit far. I mean, it is just the last day on the Mayan calendar and nothing even happened. When you come right down to it, it is a problem of how people react whenever ANYONE says that the world will end. Sometimes people predict it themselves (without Mayan calendars), saying that they looked at the Bible, and figured out that if you look in (such and such passage) it says (such and such). And when you apply it to (such and such), that conveniently corresponds with a day 3 weeks from now! “We are all going to Heaven now dudes! Get Christ!” This has happened, and then gone viral a few times in my life, and since I am still here, it is getting, as I said in the first sentence of this post, awkward!

Every few years, someone says the world will end. People post about it on Facebook, and people make meme pictures that joke about it, and different people post their views on why or why not the world will end. Then, on the day of the “ending”, people go crazy, try to do all the stuff they wanted to do in life, and then the next day, realize that it was just another day, and go on with their lives. It is said that the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result”. It seems that people are predicting the end of the world over and over, expecting it to “really end this time!”

And I sometimes wonder if maybe it is really just a huge humanity test run by pranksters. “Hey, I wonder how many people will post on Facebook and do stupid stuff if we release some bogus claim that the world ends in a month?” If I were running that, and I had the technology to see all the stuff people are doing on the “big day”, I would probably have enough to laugh about until I die (which incidentally, would not be in a month).

So I guess, all I am trying to say here is that people shouldn't get all worked up over a day, just because someone said it will end. Almost like someone saying it makes it more legit. For example, in 5 months, you probably won’t be thinking, “The world might end today.” But if someone releases a news article saying that some PHD says the world will end on May 22nd, you can bet it will be all over the media. People won’t give reasons for why it is wrong on the news, because they really don’t know if it IS wrong. So we really have two options next time this happens.

1. We can just go with it, go crazy, flood Facebook with apocalyptic statuses, and then move on with our lives again.

2. Realize that every day is a possible end of the world, and try to make every day count towards Christ, and life.

So next time someone thinks the world will end on December 21st, or whatever date they choose, kindly suggest that they read this article, and then move on with life until the world really does end.

Until next time! ~Ryan M.