But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 2 Peter 3:8-10
“Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? is it dial He is not strong enough? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. i do not suppose you and i would have thought much of a Frenchman who waited till the allies were marching into Germany and then announced he was on our side. God will invade.
But i wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realise what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else — something it never entered your head to conceive — comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left?
For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. it will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. it will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.”
C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity (Quebec: Samizdat University Press, 2014) 38-39.
For further biblical reading on the Day of the Lord, see Joel 2 and Acts 2. While we await that Day, we need to give people a chance like God gave each of us a chance. Our generosity comes into view as extending the grace and truth of Jesus to a broken and hurting world.
That might, practically speaking, take shape as loving our neighbor as ourselves and getting to know people in our neighborhood. Or, it might reach our community or parts of the world where God has us working. When we live this way we join “the secret society” that aims to spread love to the world.
Meditate on the biblical texts mentioned above. Perhaps get outside and do it in a beautiful place like this vineyard in Palisade, Colorado. In so doing, ask God to bring to your mind 3-5 people who still need a chance. Pray for them by name. Fast (skip a meal) each week. The Day of the Lord has never been closer than now.