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Digg10 things to Do While Waiting for the Second Coming
This article appears in the Eschatology issue of Trinity News , the magazine of Trinity Church-St. Paul's Chapel.
By Lindsay Lunnum
1. Be a pilgrim. You don’t need Canterbury or Compostela. Pick a destination that’s meaningful to you, walk mindfully, and be open to surprises along the way.
2. Budget. Or rather, budget with a view toward achieving the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include cutting extreme poverty in half by 2015. Commit 0.7% of your income — personal and parish — to work that will achieve the MDGs.
3. Eat ice cream. One spoonful triggers the part of the brain known to activate when people enjoy themselves. Combining ice-cream consumption with a swing set may produce even greater amounts of pleasure.
4. Be a minister , regardless of whether or not you wear a collar.
5. Plant a native tree. There is theological significance in planting a seed and watching it grow into something that will stand long after you are gone.
6. Look beyond the soup kitchen. The church’s tried-and-true methods of hospitality are important, but think of how your parish can transform society, making soup kitchens unnecessary.
7. Reconcile. Contact estranged relatives and slighted prom dates. Before Jesus comes back, begin the work of forgiveness by offering it to others and receiving it yourself.
8. Watch a movie. Specifically, create a parish event around Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Challenge attendees to change one thing about the way they live their lives for the sake of future generations.
9. Tithe. No, seriously. It’s an ancient Christian practice that can transform your sense of community and ideas of what really belongs to God.
10. Join life. Pray ceaselessly. Go skinnydipping. Sing boldly in the shower and in church. Waiting for the Second Coming shouldn’t be about cowering in fear of a terrifying future event. If we love God, we trust God. Enjoy one another in the world, while we’re here. Life speeds by unless we catch it in meaningful moments.
Lindsay Lunnum is a second-year seminarian and serves on the Young Adult National Coordinating Committee for the Episcopal Church.
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