This devotional journey has a specific pattern.

• Mondays introduce the story
• Tuesdays help us develop a proper worldview
• Wednesday helps us to examine our heart posture
• Thursday looks to see where and how these truths were lived out by Jesus
• Friday is meant to turn the story back to Him in worship and praise.

I find it interesting when I look at today's passage to see how Jesus approached the events of the flood and Sodom in contrast to how many of us view them today. While we often use these words and the original stories themselves, to instill fear and dread, Jesus focuses on something completely different.

He says, as it was in those days, so will it be when the Son of Man comes. This begs the question: "How was it in those days? What does He mean?". While we often focus on the judgment, His emphasis is on what happened before. Jesus says, "people went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building." Life was completely normal. Until it wasn't.

He  doesn't highlight the destruction, He highlights the distraction. The people in these events weren't ignorant. They knew the warnings, that wasn't the problem. The issue was indifference. The "normalcy" of everyday life had so captured their fancy that God's warnings carried no weight.

I can't help but wonder how many of us are so enamored with everyday life, with our wealth and affluence, our ease and comfort, that the warnings of God have lost their importance? He isn't calling us to fear-driven panic, prepping, or guessing when it all will take place. He is calling us to watchfulness, to faithfulness, and to presence.

Our focus on the Way of Jesus shouldn't be about escaping the coming judgment, per se, but living awake and aware in light of it. While the world drifts along assuming tomorrow will always look just like today, we are asked to live each day in alignment with, and focused on, Jesus. No matter what tomorrow brings, we must have our eyes wide open to the reality that God doesn't wink at wickedness and He never abandons His plan.

Noah built the ark in faith before a single drop of rain had fallen to the earth. Today, Jesus doesn't call us to live our lives in abject fear of the coming wind and rain, but in restful peace because of the One whom the wind and rain obey.

Especially in America we are steeped in comfort and ease; it's the air we breathe. On one hand it is a blessing and privilege to live in such a place, but on the other, it can easily dull our senses to the reality of what lies ahead, making us spiritually sleepy.

In what ways have you allowed comfort or routine to dull your spiritual awareness? What would faithful watchfulness look like in your daily life right now?

Father, keep me awake to the world around me. Help me not to be fearful, but faithful. Teach me to live aligned with You, especially when everything around me feels unbothered and normal. Shape my life into a quiet testimony of trust. In Jesus name, Amen.