World religions make reference to the way the world will end. Some call it final days, others end times.
My experience on this chance planet tells me to avoid the useless distractions of despair and fear during these unprecedented times of global pandemic. End times are upon us, but not in the fatalistic way some people believe.
There are many parables of what looked like end times but were important new beginnings—think David and Goliath, the crowds feeding on fishes and loaves of bread. In my own million hours spent with media—including werewolves and science fiction, the good guys are challenged to within an inch of the top of their white Stetsons, but they usually win.
End time values are those that walk with us through every important crossroad. End times are those decisive moments in battles whether patriotic, personal or on the playing field, when the slingshot is swung, and the rock flies forward to a new future.
Dan Cook, the craggy-faced San Antonio sports writer and TV announcer, originated the modern proverb "It ain’t over until the fat lady sings" to direct our minds to stay open for any outcome. End times are those moments at a championship game when thousands of hours of shooting practice baskets propels a player above an impossible throng of shoulders to send the ball sailing into the hoop before the buzzer sounds and the crowds rush onto the court.
End times are unpredictable of course. That’s what Dan Cook meant. In battles of any kind there are winners and losers. Dan Cook was saying with poetic playfulness that no one can know the outcome of a contest of any kind.
Winning for me means more David, less reckless pessimism. More time throwing baskets in my writing practice, and in my daily interactions, whether digital or in the few face-to-face ones that I have at safe distances. Use up the stored courage and courtesy, no time to hoard helping hands, hellos or happiness.
Trying really matters. Fear, worry and pessimism may always be present on the battlefield or the playing field. Ask David the soldier or David, the Admiral of San Antonio. I, too, have fear in these end times, but any wisdom I have won tells me that fear only serves me as a signal. Butterflies in my tummy, shaky knees? Time to gird my core. Time to remember the thousands of times I have hit the target. Leap above the massive shoulders with my best aim.
End times are when decisions are made, tables are turned, when we humans reach deep to jump high and toss forward into destiny our human race’s next ambition.
Drill down to what enters into decision points during end times. Our battle against the Goliath pandemic reminds me that now is when to use the force of my faith, to put into practice what I’ve perfected in my life of drills. That doing not doubting determines what I alone control, that I play with all I've got.
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