Sour Grapes

     I have noticed that the older a Christian becomes, the sooner the Lord is coming back.  I will most likely feel the same way when I graduate from senior citizen to elderly.  I think one of the reasons older Christians feel this way is because they can look back over their lifetime and see increasing spiritual and moral decay in the world.  This has certainly been true in my lifetime.  When I was a child in the 1960's there was a common standard of right and wrong, a shared moral code.  This code was questioned in the free love 70's, probably because right and wrong had been separated from their source, the Bible.  Hippies thought the rule makers were the establishment, actually the rule maker was God. This was followed by moral relativism which questions not just the standard and source of right and wrong but the existence of truth itself.  Even worse than questioning the reality of truth is the inclusive view that truth varies from one person to another.  Even though most people would realize the ridiculousness of an airline that let each passenger determine the route and destination, many still believe this will work on a spiritual level for our final destination.  No matter how sincerely the passengers believe, the destination is determined by the pilot.
     However, this belief that the Lord is coming soon because the world is worse than ever before has been around since the beginning of the church, although I hope not in the ages of great revivals, and Christ has not yet returned.  It is Biblical to live in expectation of the imminent return of Christ, but I hope when my twilight years come my expectancy springs from my joy in the Lord, not my discouragement with the world.  It reminds me of  the Aesop's fable of the fox and the grapes. After the fox made many "fruitless" attempts to reach a cluster of delicious looking grapes he minimized the loss by deciding they must be sour grapes. It made it easier for the fox to walk away.  I do not want to leave this world with this sour grapes attitude. I hope to be ready when my time comes even though I am still enjoying life and have things I am looking forward to.
     I once had a pastor who said regularly from the pulpit that he had nothing left to do on earth and couldn't imagine why the Lord hadn't yet taken him home.  He said the best thing that could happen to him would be getting hit by a truck.  He said this in front of his 11 year old daughter. Imagine growing up with that message in your head.  I do not want to yearn for the beauty of heaven because I can only see the ugliness of the earth.  The blessings of this life are a foretaste of heavenly life, an appetizer so to speak.  You don't make the main course more appealing by spitting on the appetizers.  Christ died on the cross because of the joy set before him, not to escape His suffering in this world.  It is easy to let go of sour grapes.  I hope I can let go when the taste of life is still sweet as chocolate in my mouth.