Keeping Watch

I got a good night's sleep last night.  It wasn't until this morning that I realized how fortunate I was that I would have another day on this earth.  On June 17th, Joshua Mhlakela announced that the end of the world was coming on September 23rd and/or September 24th.  He stated on TikTok that he had met with Jesus, and Jesus told him this.  I had never heard of Joshua, and I don't use TikTok, so while this was news to me, apparently there were millions of people who took notice.  Many took the warning seriously, and many more responded with sarcasm.  

In Paul's first letter to the Thesalonians, he states "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."  I believe Paul.  But in Matthew 24, Jesus himself states about his return, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come."  Keep watch.  What do those two words mean to you?  For me, I think of important people that have security teams talking into their wrists, keeping watch over the person they were hired to protect.  I also think of the security cameras that our kids have installed in their nurseries to keep watch over their newborn kids.  But what does Jesus mean?  I think He means to be ready and to be vigilant.  We are to expect his return and prepare ourselves by doing everything we can to do the things He wants us to do and not do the things He doesn't want us to do.  I want to do this today, but I won't spend a minute worrying about what day He is going to return.