I remember as a youngster playing “hide and seek.”  And whenever I was “it,” I would count to 100 as fast as I could and then shout, “Ready or not, here I come.  When I was very young and doing the hiding, I wasn’t always “ready,” and was not yet hiding.

Way back in 1969, Larry Norman included “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” on his “Miscellaneous” album (Remember those vinyl discs?).  HIs words then have been applicable since the beginning of the fall of man.

Life was filled with guns and war
And all of us got trampled on the floor
I wish we’d all been ready

The children died, the days grew cold
A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold
I wish we’d all been ready

There’s no time to change your mind
The son has come and you’ve been left behind

A man and wife asleep in bed
She hears a noise and
Turns her head, he’s gone
I wish we’d all been ready

Two men walking up a hill
One disappears and
One’s left standing still
I wish we’d all been ready

There’s no time to change your mind
The son has come and you’ve been left behind

The father spoke, the demons dined
How could you have been so blind?

There’s no time to change your mind
The son has come and you’ve been left behind
There’s no time to change your mind
The son has come and you’ve been left behind

I hope we’ll all be ready
You’ve been left behind
You’ve been left behind
You’ve been left behind

How could this be?  How could a loving God leave people behind when the Endtime comes around?  The simple answer is that He doesn’t do the leaving.  We choose to stay.

When Noah built the ark to God’s specification, God was giving the people a chance to escape.  Instead, they chose to laugh at a man building something that belonged on the seas–not inland, where there had never been rain.  Instead, they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all (Luke 17:27).

In the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot was warned ahead of time that He would pour out fire and brimstone on both cities because of their evil ways.  Abraham tried to bargain with God to save the cities.  Eventually God agreed that He would not destroy the two cities if He could find just ten people who hadn’t bowed down to evil ways.  He couldn’t.  So God sent an angel to warn Lot and permitted him to escape with his wife and two daughters.  It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; and God rained fire and brimstone down upon both cities (Luke 17:18-29).  But even then, on the way to safety, Lot’s wife disobeyed the angels instructions and looked back.  As a consequence, she was turned to a pillar of salt.

Go is merciful and gives each of us many opportunities to turn away from our own evils ways.  Instead all we think about is eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building. etc.  Does any of this sound familiar?  What if we change things to what people are busy doing today instead?  Today we are killing babies before they are born, euthanizing our elders, getting divorces or living together without marrying, spending hours on social media, opening ourselves to the destructive force of pornography, spending more money than what we have–the list could go on and on.

So how do we avoid falling into the trap of being left behind?  Be a Noah and do what God tells you to do–no matter how foolish it may seem.  And be an Abraham and plead for the saving of your family and those who are trying to follow God’s will for our lives.  The choice is always ours.  Choose wisely or be left behind.