Waiting, Watching, Working

While the nation focuses its attention on the state of Florida to discover who will be the next President, I have noticed there are three ways people are dealing with the delay of this announcement. People seem to be waiting, watching, or working.

The waiters are those of us, who first were enthralled with the election on Tuesday night, but as the hours turned to days, have gone about their routine. Going to work, going to school, shopping, talking, and tuning into media occasionally to see if the final vote count is done. The waiters know we will find out eventually and are content to let their lives roll steadily along in the meantime.

The watchers are glued to their TV’s and radios. They still have to go to work and school, still have to do the shopping but its different now. They check the internet at work several times a day or keep the TV on quietly in the corner of the office. They watch until the late hours of the evening and get up early to turn on Headline News and grab the paper. For once, they aren’t turning to the Comics section first!

The workers are those persons whose occupation these days is to facilitate this announcement and measure a response to it. Vote counters, strategists, speech writers, reporters, and campaign organizers are all working for the tally to be known. They are laboring long hours with hope and determination.

If we go through all this for an election return, what will be our response to the Lord’s return? Jesus has promised us to come back. How will he find us? Some of us are simply waiting. Going about our lives without much thought to him, we are content to know he’ll come back someday and we will deal with him then. Others are watching. We go to church and keep an eye out for the signs. We hear the watchers every time a regional conflict breaks out. “It’s the end times”, they say. They start paying more attention to their faith only when they feel its time to watch out.

As servant leaders, we are called to be workers. It is our duty to be ready for the return and working in the meantime to make this world a good place to come back to. We are supposed to be planting seeds for the great harvest. Not waiting for someone else to plant them; not watching someone else plant them. Jesus spoke a parable about his return. He said,

"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, `My master is staying away a long time,