That September 23d buzz

I've become aware that there is an ongoing buzz in the Christian community, because - in there close reading of Scriptures - some are saying that September 23d (which is two days hence from when I am typing this out - a Saturday, when a good deal of people are sleeping in, from staying up late on Friday's payday) the Rapture is going to happen .... I'm going to add my two cents, from my own experience on this :

By the time I was in my early twenties, I knew one certain thing about a dear friend of mine I'll call Lauren:  that - even if our politics were sometimes as opposite as LBJ and the hippies screaming 'Hey hey LBJ how many kids did you kill today?' -- her Biblical knowledge was so deep, it rivaled someone like Jack Van Impe !  Therefore, when she called me very excited, and said it was Book-based and I needed to rearrange my life and come down and see her almost immediately, I did so --

-- Lauren sat me down and showed me -- just as she had everyone that she knew - how her Biblical studies and knowledge had revealed that X date on the calendar was going to be The Rapture.  The End for all Christians.  The Holy New Beginning!

It was 2 weeks hence.

Oh.  OH!   I not only cleaned my room and even cleaned my car - both very rare events for me, especially my poor car! -- I cleaned up my side of the street - i.e. made amends as much as I could; made sure people knew that I loved them AND while being sensitive to denominational divides, made SURE they knew that God loved them, too.  

You can say I was as fully prepped, as possible -- I even made sure I had nothing on my agenda for that day, no special place ON THIS EARTH THAT IS! I was expected to be, because - after all!  I wasn't going to be HERE ;>

X calendar day arrived.  And concluded.  And I was still in Edison, NJ, albeit with a much cleaner personal environment! but

I was so upset, so jarred, that I couldn't even call Lauren and demand to know why?!  what happened?!  (There was even a small part of me that was terrified I would call her house and no one would answer and --- yeahhhh.)  So instead I called Lauren's mother ... she was a substantial Christian!  IF she was still here - well, then!  

Then she could tell me why we were ALL STILL HERE?!!

"Jean," she said in a very calm, very reasonable voice - one that sticks with me to this very day, thirty-odd years later, especially relevant with another big X on the calendar that is supposed to be my earth school graduation///finish up here, date! ---"Jean ... look at Lauren's life"  she named some things we both knew all about "wouldn't you, too, be pining and eager to find a Godly exit from all of that?!!!!"

Indeed, indeed ...