When my son needs to go to the restroom, there is no doubt to anyone. There is grabbing and squirming and whining and dancing around. It is obvious that he has to go and he cannot wait. As soon as he realizes he has to go, the situation instantly becomes urgent. It gives immediacy a whole new meaning. In fact, I’m not sure I even knew what urgency looked like before I had kids.
I certainly had never seen it at church or within the Christian community. As Christians, it seems like we have lost our sense of urgency. As we look at the book of Acts and read the letters of the New Testament, we see individuals acting like any moment could be their last. By their actions, you can tell that they believe Christ’s return is imminent. They sacrifice their livelihoods. They spend all of their time preaching, teaching, and loving those that don’t know about Jesus. They live as if any moment could be their last.
2,000 years later, we seem to have lost touch with the reality that Jesus is coming back. After the first hundred years or so of waiting, it seems Christians in general lost their zeal for proclaiming His second coming. Sometimes it seems like we don’t even believe it will happen.
I’m not saying that we should focus all of our time talking about end times. I just think that, if we really believed that Jesus could come back any minute, we would spend much more time doing His work with all of the effort we could muster. We wouldn’t waste time complaining and worrying about why our lives aren’t perfect. We would focus more on others and making sure they are aware of the Truth.
If we truly want to see revival in a big way, it is vital that we all find our way back to a sense of urgency. We need to study the New Testament as if reading it for the first time, and put the great commission back on the top of our priority lists.