Doom Scrolling

“Repent! The end is near!” he cried from the street corner.

He wore dirty jeans, ragged tennis shoes and a faded Star Wars T-shirt that was torn in places. He carried a carboard sign that had the same words etched onto it with a black magic marker

His name was Daniel and he called himself a prophet of God. And if you asked, he’d confirm that he was indeed the same guy in the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament.

He was more or less, a harmless nut right up to the point he promoted himself to Messiah and announced he was going to die for everyone’s sins and rise on the third day.

Now the test of a Prophet according the Bible is whatever they say God told them to say has to come to pass. Keep that in mind, because it applies to him and his message.

Well, after we carted him off to the state hospital (and they let him go saying he was harmless), Daniel left town. He went up to Grand Junction Colorado, made the same announcement, and shot and killed himself.

That was over forty years ago.

We’re still waiting for him to come back.

I think we can all agree that Daniel had some serious issues and his message was total nonsense.

Flash forward almost forty years.

I logged onto my computer today and the first thing I see is a headline that proclaims scholars at MIT say civilization as we know it will collapse by 2040. In short, they’re echoing Daniel to “Repent! The end is near!”

What’s the difference?

Daniel was a homeless, poorly dressed individual with some serious mental health issues, and sporting a homemade cardboard sign.

These people are well dressed people with degrees and the internet (assuming the article is even true).

Both sowed something into our lives we need to be aware of. A little something called fear.

They both proclaimed that it was coming and there wasn’t anything we could do about it. At least Daniel offered an escape hatch of repentance (which, incidentally, isn’t a bad idea), but he had no clue where or who it was.

Fear is the big thing we’re facing as a people today. Fear causes us to lose hope and forget one thing.

We can change the future.

And it’s not through sowing anger against anyone or anything.

Changing the world for the better starts with the person who looks back from the mirror.

It’s about sowing understanding, hope, and respect.

And that takes something a lot of people need to find in themselves.

Courage.