I used to think about the “end of the world” as a finality. Now I see it as a transition. I don’t look forward to it, just as I don’t really look forward to my own death or that of any other person, but I understand it will happen, just as my own death and that of every other person will happen. The end of days, the end of mortality, the end of time – these are the same.
I know that I choose my own timeless status. We do not simply choose once to declare for heaven or for hell. It is the sum total of the choices we’ve made in our lives and the outcomes and consequences of those choices that is our ultimate choice for heaven or for hell. And if one considers a choice of faith as a component of those choices, then a true choice of faith will leave a trail of strong evidence in one’s life. A declaration of faith alone is not sufficient, and neither is a declaration of faith with weak evidence of such.
The trials of life give us a chance to act upon our faith, but we must remember that the trials of our own lives are only some of the trials of life that we interact with – there are the trials of the people around us, as well. How do we interact with them? The answers to that question make up our desire for heaven or for hell. We choose how far away from perfect love we want to be in our lives, our days, our mortality.
There is much more to consider on that matter, but the key here is that we are connected to one and to all. We measure our distance from God in terms of people we have not shown compassion to, people we have not forgiven, messages of hope we have not delivered, and sacrifices unmade. For those making diligent progress in such matters, God has ways to erase distances. But one must be earnest in doing the work one can never complete to be ready for such an erasure. Merely declaring a desire to be closer to God without doing enough Godly work to realize such a desire is not enough.
We have days to choose, to act, to do. We have these days until they end. What do we choose this day?