Alex Trebek and thoughts on eternity

I’ve watched Jeopardy as long as I can remember.  While growing up, like many US families, our five-nights-a-week routine was to watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.  For me, this familiar routine lasted through grade school and Junior High, but dwindled a bit when I was a busy High School student.  As you can imagine, I didn’t have much time for a nightly quiz show when in college or starting out in my career…but I was always aware that Alex Trebek was still running the show.  That thought was always steadying, in a comfortable sort of way.

The last several years, my wife and I have found ourselves watching more of Wheel and Jeopardy.  Maybe it’s because of our months of 2020 COVID lockdown, but we probably watched and enjoyed the gameshows more than any previous year.  However, it was still a “watch-it-if-you-feel-like-it” situation each evening.  No urgency to see that night’s show.  The news of Alex Trebek’s recent passing wasn’t all that surprising – I mean, after all, he was 80 years old and fighting one of the most difficult cancers known to man.  Like many Americans, the news left me feeling as if some part of my childhood had also died.

But in the short time since he passed, I have noticed a change in my nightly habits…I’m much more intentional about making time to watch Jeopardy.

Maybe watching Alex’s final episodes is a weird way to cope with the idea that a consistent voice from my childhood is now gone.  Perhaps I’m looking for signs that his time was almost up.  But what I think my intentions boil down to, is this – his last episode will be aired on Christmas day, and that’s not very far from now.  I recognize that time is running out.

Tight deadlines and impending endpoints force us to focus; however, we also find the opposite is true – when deadlines are far off in the distance and the endpoint isn’t near, we tend to slack off.  We allow ourselves to be distracted.  If I was told in 2010 that Alex Trebek would stop hosting Jeopardy by the end of 2020, would I have started watching it more?  Likely not…

I think I finally understand why God doesn’t tell us the exact dates of His plan for human history – because we would treat Jesus’ return like the time in college I stayed awake all night to read the Odyssey and write a 5 page paper the night before it was due.  Never mind that I was given weeks of notice to complete the assignment…I waited until the last moment possible to start.  I procrastinated until it was nearly too late, and I was not in good shape afterwards.

Another danger would be that if we knew Jesus would not return for another 250 years…would we continue to live for Him, or would we give in to simply living for ourselves?

But we still want to know when God’s plan will unfold, don’t we?  Well, so did the disciples.  Here’s what Jesus had to say when they asked about the timing of His triumphal return:

Matthew 24:36, 42-51
Now concerning that day and hour no one knows – neither the angels of heaven nor the Son – except the Father alone…Therefore be alert, since you don’t know what day your Lord is coming.  But know this: If the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into.  This is why you are also to be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give them food at the proper time?  Blessed is that servant whom the master finds doing his job when he comes.  Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.  But if that wicked servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delayed,’ and starts to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with drunkards, that servant’s master will come on a day he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know.  He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus doesn’t want His disciples to focus on the day of His arrival, He wants them to focus on their faithfulness until His arrival.  Look at Jesus’ parable – their status as servants is not in danger; however, their fellowship with the master and their future opportunities are at stake.  A faithful servant will be rewarded, whereas an unfaithful servant will be embarrassed, demoted, and regretful.

Paul said something similar to the believers in Thessalonica when speaking about the day of Christ’s return to rapture His church.  They were actually afraid that they had missed the event and had been left behind:

1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, 8
About the times and the seasons: Brothers and sisters, you do not need anything to be written to you.  For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.  When they say, “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the dark, for this day to surprise you like a thief.  For you are all children of light and children of the day.  We do not belong to the night or the darkness.  So then, let us not sleep, like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled…But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled and put on the armor of faith and love, and a helmet of the hope of salvation.

It’s best we don’t know the exact day of Jesus’ return…we would not handle that information very well.  There will not be an announced deadline for our work to be turned in.  We won’t know ahead of time when the last episode of human history will broadcast.  However, Jesus does not want us to worry about when He arrives, but for us to maintain our faithfulness until He arrives.  For those of us who take that challenge and do it, there are great rewards to be had!

For some encouragement, let’s look at something Paul wrote to the believers in Galatia:

Galatians 6:7-10
Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked.  For whatever a person sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.  Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith.

Keep Pressing,
Ken