Incoming Missile…This is not a Drill

What would I do if I thought I only had a few minutes to live? The people in Hawaii videoed their families a final goodbye. Some tried to hide their kids in the underground sewer. Others hid under beds. Maybe some ate a half-gallon of ice cream or belted back a few bourbons. Reports show that almost no one looked at porn, but after the false alarm sounded, the porn sites spiked. Somehow they knew porn has no final answers but is a strange sedative. And some prayed honest-to-God prayers.

What would I do? I hope I would talk to my significant others—God, wife and kids. But maybe I would sit in a stupor and watch the news. Someone said our best hope is to place our head between our knees and kiss ourselves goodbye. I think what I would do is what I every day—kick the tires of my faith to see if it is solid because death is coming at me like a Mack truck and this is not a drill.

We think we have many days separating us from our death day. We think each day and each year are some kind of wall shielding us from death. Imagine you are standing on a road and in front of you are a thousand little walls. On the other side of the walls is the big black truck you cannot see. But suddenly all the walls disappear and there is nothing between you and the truck going 1000 mph. That is how it really is. We think that days and years are barriers, but did you watch the clock tick into 2018? I did. There was no barrier between 2017 and 2018. The new year slipped into this year unobstructed. There is really nothing separating us from our final moment. Death is already here. The seed of death has been in us from our birth. Great news, huh?

I also believe there is nothing that separates us from God’s love, not even death. Death is a wall that is illusory like the walls between days. In Christ, the life we are now living will continue, though wonderfully different. And I believe our present life is a wrinkled seed that will sprout in splendor in the new garden. I know this because the Mack truck slammed into Jesus on the cross. The missile heading towards us hit him. Jesus then walked into the room of the disciples who looked scared like the people in Hawaii looking at their cells phones, and He scared them even more saying, “Don’t fear.” Well, too late.

This life is not a drill. All that we do is eternally important. The false alarm is really an accurate alarm to wake us up to eternal realities. I have read reports of people who have died and come back. They say the first person you will meet in heaven or hell is you. You will be aware you are you. Even if a Korean missile liquidates you, you will be you forever. And Jesus will be Jesus. If that is good news, you are in good shape. You can tell everyone on your deathbed you will be just fine. If this news that you always will be you and Jesus always will be Jesus is not good news, it can be. This is not a drill.

OUR STORY:

In 1994, the McMillan family traveled to the kidnapping, murder, and drug capital of the western hemisphere to plant a church and a foundation. God thought Medellin, Colombia a good place to raise a family. And turns out He was right (as He usually is). It became a very large family: The church, Comunidad (Community), is now the largest church in Medellin with over 8,000 members, the Foundation, Viento Fresco, cares for over 150 high-risk children, and a non-profit coffee shop, New Hearts Cafe, serves cups of caffeine and the love of Jesus to thousands of college students.