"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on Guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.

Mark 13:32-33, NIV

In my sixty plus years here on earth, I have watched men and women get worried over a lot of things that are simply beyond their control. In this past year, we have seen many people frozen into inaction over the fear of getting a bug and dying. An unreasoned fear has overcome so many to the point where they have simply stopped living, because they are afraid of dying. How very sad! How very useless!

I don't want you to get me wrong. I realize that many people have gotten the "bug" and a number of people have died from it. It is serious, no question about it, but we have had serious things before this bug and we will have serious things after it. For those so terribly worried about what may happen to them because of a stupid bug, perhaps they should ask themselves this question: 

Weren't they planning on going to heaven, anyway?

That brings us to the theme of the verse above. Jesus is talking about His Second Coming and the Day of Judgment. It is a day that will definitely arrive, and a day that we are commanded to be on guard and alert for. But, as Jesus so clearly points out, it is a day whose time no one but God can know about... so we don't need to be worried about its coming, for we were planning on going to heaven anyway, weren't we?

I hope you can see the point of all of this. We plan to go to heaven, not because we deserve to, but because God wants us to and has made provisions for that very occurrence. Since this is a fact, we simply do not have to worry over things such as "what happens if we catch a bug and die?" or "what happens if the Day of Judgment should come tomorrow?". It's not that we shouldn't be concerned about such things, it's just that we shouldn't worry about them beyond our responsibility of due diligence in being alert, on guard, and prepared.

We are planning on going to heaven anyway, aren't we? So let us get to our job at hand of preparing ourselves for that inevitable day of our passing from this life by living for God now! We have things to do for God and things do to help our fellow man. Don't you think that this is what we were put here for in the first place? 

Today's reading is from Mark chapter 13. It will help us with gaining that proper perspective so desperately needed during times such as these.