What Y2K Can Teach Us About Following Jesus

Daniel Young

Remember the days and weeks leading up to New Year’s Eve 1999? I was only 7, but I remember that night clearly. My cousins told me the world would end, which to a 7-year-old meant no more Saturday morning cartoons or ice-cream, but it still had me scared.

Fifteen years later, we laugh at how silly we were to be freaked out over nothing. The world did not end, computers kept running, and disaster did not strike. But that fear of the end of the world hasn’t left us. Instead of preparing for Y2K, people stockpile for the zombie apocalypse, a government collapse or the next world war.

The end of the world is coming and it should change how we live (2 Peter 3), but not in the way that many doomsday preppers might think.  

3 Things We Can Learn From Y2K

1. We should stockpile God’s Word in our hearts, not stuff in our basements.

Psalm 119:11 says, "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” If there is anything we want to stock up on, it’s our knowledge of the Bible. The Bible is God’s voice speaking to us. In it, He teaches who is, how much He loves us, and what He wants for His children. Knowing what God says keeps us from sin, and it draws us closer to Him.

2. Jesus really is coming back, and we need to be ready.

We all want to be ready for the worst, which is why many of us stockpiled for Y2K just in case somehow the end did come. We don’t have to wonder about the future because Jesus has already told us that He will return, the earth will pass away and how we should live in response to that truth.

"But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Luke 12:39).

Every day we are one day closer to when Jesus returns. What next step do you need to take in your walk with Jesus today? Why waste another day?

3. Every day this year Y2K will happen to someone.

One if not most of our neighbors, co-workers, family, and friends, will experience hurt and hopelessness this year.  

Not knowing Jesus is a greater crisis than Y2K ever could have been. The peace we have that we’ll spend eternity in heaven comes from a relationship with Jesus. That should give us peace, but for our friends and family who don’t know Jesus eternity will look very different. This should grieve us. It should move us to action.

2 Corinthians 5:18 says we have been given the ministry of reconciliation. We are God’s plan for people to hear about the hope we have in Jesus!

"We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:20-22).

Don’t waste your life playing it safe. Jesus is coming back. People need to hear and believe in Him today. Delight in the Bible, store it up in your heart, and share your faith with those who are far from God, teaching them to follow Jesus step by step.

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