Even if you've never been to Paris, you wouldn't have a hard time finding the Eiffel Tower. It's big. It stands out. You've seen it a million times on TV. As people who give directions always say, "You can't miss it." For those of us read the Bible, the same thing should be true about us being able to discern the coming of the end of the age. In chapters like Matthew 24 or Luke 21, Jesus lays it out for us. We know what we should be looking for: kingdoms rising against kingdoms, Jerusalem being surrounded and signs in the heavens. Looking for signs of the end? "You can't miss them." 

Or can you? 

Just after Jesus tells His disciples what to look for before the coming of the Day of the Lord, He gives them a warning that is sometimes overlooked in  Luke 21:34, "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap." God's day of judgment on disobedience and of deliverance for His people is coming--we don't want our senses to be dulled so that we are taken by surprise. And Jesus names the poison that can make us numb: the daily grind. We all know what it's like to struggle with the anxieties of life--working all week, paying bills, and dealing with health or family issues. The dissipation and drunkeness that Jesus mentions are the things we do to cope with the mountain of the mundane. The dull throb from the little pains in our lives make us want to shout, "Calgon, take me away!" as we turn to our addictions to soothe the pain. But numb hearts make us lose focus on God's plans.

So how do we keep focus so that we know how to live until the coming of our Lord? Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5. First, remember your identity in Christ: "But you, brethren , are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor darkness" v 4-5. Second, remember our destiny in Christ, "For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him" v 9-10. Know who you are in Christ and where you are going. Then, shake off a heavy heart by how you live, "Let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. . . having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation." May we not be numb, but may we be "numberers"--those who know how to correctly number our days as we wait for our Lord's return.

"Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man" --Luke 21:36