For those not in the know the world is supposed to end – or at least start the process of ending – on May 21. This is the belief promulgated by a number of Christian groups, who claim the Rapture is to begin with the fiery destruction of the world and the ascendance of a goodly number of their kind into heaven.
And here’s the thing: the apocalypse WILL happen. It already has many, many times. Just ask the dinosaurs who, like much of life on earth, were wiped out by a slab of space rock. And before them there was the Permian-Triassic extinction, considered the Mother of All extinction events when virtually all life on earth was obliterated. Wait long enough and as part of the sun’s own death throes it will swell and consume the earth as part of that process. Or if you are especially patient, the universe itself eventually will either fade into a cold dead oblivion or collapse back into an unimaginably dense singularity from which, perhaps, the whole big charade will explode into existence all over again.
The human mind craves meaning, purpose, intent. We need a reason not only for our living but also for our dying. A convenient and dramatic way of managing both is to interpret scripture (or ancient Mayan calendars or the musings of long-dead seers, etc.) and predict the end times. And because that same human mind wants desperately to feel special, it prescribes an apocalypse that happens to others while it is ‘saved’ due to its own good thoughts, works, imaginings.
Playing basketball the other day at the local university, a middle-aged teammate collapsed from a heart attack. We raced to him, held his hand while help was summoned, and watched his body writhe in agony for several seconds before succumbing. Moments later, we watched in similar amazement as an EMT performed aggressive CPR and twice brought the “dead man” back to life. (Emergency bypass surgery the next day ultimately saved his life.)
The point being, this is how the end of the world really comes about. For all of us.
To be sure a great gaggle of us may go down with a sinking ship, get blasted to smithereens by an unexpected comet or manmade nuke, or be claimed by a viral epidemic of some kind. But even if millions go with us we still go alone. (Another hallmark of the apocalyptic mindset is the need to be with others, whether huddled in a bunker somewhere or forming a human Kumbaya chain in anticipation of a rapturous brotherly rise.)
Visions of the apocalypse have been around nearly as long as images of Jesus or Mary have been showing up in bowls of cereal or etched in a hoar-frosted window. During my darker days when I was filled with great vexing pools of tormented thought I too imagined the world eventually ending in a paroxysmic unpheaval of mantle and ocean, pestilence and disease.
Looking back it’s clear to see that my unhappy visions of the future were inextricably tied to my unhappy vision of the present. I found the world dangerous, lonely, insane. And because I could not make sense of the turmoil within I projected it onto the world without. In a sense, this is the suicidal mindset but with one key difference: the apocalyptic wants desperately for others to join him. The troubled soul has a dark and terrible vision of the future based on a dark and terrible vision of the now. He convinces others to drink his Kool-Aid and similarly tortured souls all too gladly adopt his vision for their own. After all, they pretty much feel the same way.
To this day when I read the story of some poor woman who drives a car into a lake with her children strapped inside, or a man who executes his family and then himself, my compassion for the children is coupled with a similar compassion for the parent. One can only imagine the immense suffering that must drive a parent to such despair that they deem it preferable to “take the children with them.” It is, in a sense, a personal apocalypse.
So when I see a Christian apocalyptic standing on a street corner with a sign urging me to “repent” because “judgment day is near,” I remind myself that here is a mind in deep and troubled torment, that sees the world as a terrible and lonely place to leave behind at the first possible chance. Yet it was Jesus himself who urged his followers to “be in the world but not of it.”
In other words, find grace and peace in the knowledge that despite what your mind tells you, the world can never do anything to you. You have come into this thing called life and at some point you will go and the world will continue to do its thing until it too goes and so on and so forth. But “you” ultimately have nothing to do with any of it. When I am most at peace is when I remind myself that I have no control and to just let go and see where the dream takes me.
