I recently heard an acquaintance of mine complaining about what a bad day she was having. Things had gone wrong all day and now she was exhausted. At the end of her melancholy rant she simply finished with, "Come, Lord Jesus." Now I'm glad she desired Christ to come back now. It's true; we are never made so aware of our fallen humanity as we are in weakness.
But. I have never heard this girl (or anyone else for that matter) say "Come, Lord Jesus" after talking about a great day they just had. I know that I don't really think about that. We don't say it on our birthdays. Or on a cruise. Or during our favourite sports game. We say it when the mood strikes us. If we were perfectly honest with ourselves, there are times when we don't want Jesus to come back - often during those aforementioned events. Why would we want Jesus to come and take us away from presents and cake? Or line-dancing and twenty-four hour buffets? Or the Superbowl or the Stanley Cup? Really, Jesus? Now? But I'm so comfortable.
And that's the problem. As much as we struggle with ailments and physical and spiritual limitations on this earth, we think it's pretty great. To an extent, though, that's appropriate. God created this world, so we know that it's good. But I fear we idolize it. I idolize it. We make life here more than it was meant to be. We were not created for this world. Why do we forget? In light of eternity, our time here is a drop in the bucket. But sometimes this world really rocks, doesn't it? And the thought of leaving is like saying goodbye to our best friend.
That is a mark of idolatry. If we were thinking about our true purpose and the Creator that made us, we would not want Jesus to come back on some days and not on others. We would eagerly await and desire His return every single day. When something wonderful happened to us, we would thank God for His goodness and the taste of heaven that it is. But we would long more for heaven than that wonderful thing, and we would say, "Come, Lord Jesus."
Think on this as you go about your day. I'm hoping to have a great day. The sun is shining, and there's a good movie I want to watch this afternoon, and my dad comes home tonight. But I hope that I can long to see Jesus more than any of those good things. Do you?