Did You Hear That?

Yesterday while I was running a few quick errands, I decided to take a different route home. It took me past my old elementary school, which brought a flood of unexpected (and vivid) memories to me, like the time I got yelled at in second grade for not following the instructions, and that day in the lunchroom when one of the other kids started laughing so hard that milk came out of his nose. Isn't it funny how you can remember things like that, but something like your password escapes your memory?

There was one memory in particular that was especially precious to me, however. As I saw the windows to several of the classrooms that I had been in, I remembered how often I would suddenly swing my head around and look out those windows, past the playground, and past the front lawn, to carefully check the cars passing out on the street. I would do this any time I heard the high-pitched whine of a set of squeaky car brakes.

At the time, my dad drove a white Datsun 280Z. It was a cool old car, but to a kid in elementary school it was like the Batmobile. It was low and sleek with a hatchback and only two seats. I loved that car, not because I was especially into cars, but because that car was synonymous with my dad. And it had squeaky brakes. Very squeaky brakes. The kind that I could hear from inside the classroom any time my dad pulled up to the school. Naturally, any time I heard squeaky brakes, I looked out the window with excitement to see if it was him. Maybe he was coming to have lunch with me that day. Or, even better, maybe he was coming to pick me up early. I didn't dislike school; I would just have much preferred to be with my dad.

Most of the time, it wasn't him; it was just some other (much less cool) car driving by the school. But even when it wasn't him in the middle of the day, I knew he would be there at the end. I knew, without a doubt in my mind, that when the day was over he would be parked in that little grassy area on the other side of the fence by the little kickball field. I knew as soon as I hopped in the car that he would ask me how my day was, that he might have one of my brother's old action figures that I had never seen in the glove compartment to surprise me (Star Wars and Tron were especially exciting) , and that he might even take me to get a Happy Meal.

It was awesome. Not because of the cool old car, or the cool old action figures, or the happy meal (although those things were pretty great). It was awesome because I wasn't at school any more - I was with my dad. I wanted that more than anything.

So why I am telling you this story? Because as Bible believers, we have a Father that we can want more than anything. Being with Him is going to be better than anything we've got going on here. And whether He comes to get us early, or He's there waiting for us at the end of our metaphorical "school day," we can be sure that He will pick us up and take us home one way or the other.

So are you eager for Him to come get you? Are you listening for those "squeaky brakes" that might mean He's coming sooner than the end of the "school day"? In I Thessalonians 4:16-18 He said:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Over the few decades that I've been a Bible believer, I've had more than a few moments where I metaphorically "looked out the window" to see if Dad was here. I've had a few times where a sound has woken me in the middle of the night and I've waited in the dark with bated breath to see if it was the trumpet call. If you're following the news in the Middle East right now, you may have turned to a Bible believing friend and asked something along the lines of "Did you hear that?"

But have you ever caught yourself in that moment thinking, "Wait! I'm not ready yet!" Maybe it's because you have legitimately good things that you're looking forward to. Maybe there are lost souls that you care deeply for that aren't saved yet. Maybe you just want the opportunity to start a family of your own, or maybe there is some ministry that you're dreaming of that you haven't gotten to yet. Or maybe there's some sin that you don't have victory over yet. Those are just a few things off the top of my head that I have thought about in those moments when it seems like the Lord is only a moment away from calling us home with that trumpet.

When I started putting this in the context of my dad picking me up from school, however, I almost laughed aloud at how silly my impulse to shout "Wait!" is. Would I have passed up the opportunity to go home with my dad because I wasn't done with my classwork for that day? Or because we hadn't had recess yet? Or because I had skinned my knee and it wasn't bandaged? Or because I had gotten into trouble? Of course not! So why should I feel even the slightest hesitation to head home with the Lord?

Honestly, it's because I want to please Him. I want to be able to hop in the "car" with Him and show Him what I made for Him at "school" that day. I want to tell Him that I knocked the front teeth out of that sin that was bullying me on the playground. I want to give Him the names of all the other kids that I invited to come home with us.

But most days, I know that's not how it would go if He picked me up right then and there. I would have to tell Him that I had a pretty lousy day. That I tried to make Him something, but it didn't turn out very good because I kept messing it up. That the sin that was bullying me on the playground threw me down and bloodied my nose. That I tried to invite some other kids to come home with us, but that I was a little bit shy about it for no good reason. Do you ever feel the same way?

Stay in the fight, my friend. Giving it everything you've got to please the Lord is the right thing to do, but don't get so hung up on the results that you miss the part that pleases Him the most - you're trying. You want to please Him, even if things keep getting messy. The Apostle Peter made some messes. Did that stop Jesus from mentioning him by name at His resurrection in Mark 16:7, or making him some breakfast in John 21:15-19? King David made some pretty ugly messes in his life, but what does record about him twice in Scripture? That he was a man after God's own heart (I Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22). He didn't have it yet, but he was after it!

Be a man after God's own heart, and keep listening for that trumpet. Dad may be coming to pick us up sooner than we think, and being with Dad will make everything else - good or bad - seem insignificant by comparison.