Kinda scary word that— apocalypse. Means catastrophe, disaster, end of the world … cheery stuff like that!

All the worldwide political upheaval, natural calamity, war and mayhem, and rumors of such, not to mention the worrisome condition of the (apparently) faltering economy in our own country — having to sell your house, pawn your golf clubs and force your children to labor in the fields just to pay for your gasoline — has many folks on edge and moaning, “What the heck next?”

So, as if this wasn’t enough, it seems that there’s a lot of people that have started considering (and even buying into) the ancient Mayan calendar forecasts and calculations that many believe predict the end of the world as we know it. This subject keeps popping up and, if you’re so inclined, you can go online and spend a whole bunch of time reading the many articles concerning it.

Today I read that searching for “2012 the end of the world” on Google brings up nearly 700,000 hits! More than 6,500 Internet video posts about that certain day have been posted on YouTube, and there are also countless books on the topic.

One article headline states: “Thousands Expect Apocalypse in 2012.” The article quoted one man thus: “‘You have to understand, there will be nothing, nothing left,’ Patrick Geryl told ABC News. ‘We will have to start an entire civilization from scratch.’ Geryl, a 53-year-old former laboratory worker who lives in Belgium, quit his job two years ago after he saved up enough money to last him until December 2012. He’s now stocking survival supplies, a list of which runs 11 pages long.” Yeah, sounds pretty doggone extreme, huh?

Back in the ancient past, when I was fresh out of school and single, I was convinced that an apocalyptic thermo-nuclear war was imminent. I was very preoccupied with finding a safe “hidey-hole” somewhere, and trying to convince my family that they should join me in this endeavor.

Studying the information available back then on climatic conditions, prevailing wind patterns and wild, unsettled places in North America, I began to devise a plan to immigrate to a wilderness site I’d located in northern Canada that would seem to be fairly safe from radioactive fallout and post-apocalypse, predatory humans that would surely come raging and ravening out of the ruins to forcefully take your food and anything else you might have — including your life!

What was needed was lots of guns and a very remote place where one might live off the land. I was young, idealistic … and very naive! Anyway, I even got all of the immigration paperwork in order. Ultimately, my youthful pursuit of other, more immediate and pressing things, like girls, enjoying life, girls, making a living, girls, a drivable car and girls, relegated my survival plan in the darkest, dustiest pigeonhole in my young, cluttered mind.

Had I known back then how much trouble my more conventional, self-indulgent lifestyle would bring, I would have probably scurried into that Canadian outback come hell or high water, health and wealth, apocalypse or utopia! Of course, at that age, I didn’t know as I do now that, “People are born into trouble as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). Hardly matters where you go, or what you do, trouble’s gonna find you!

So, instead of frantically seeking hidey-holes and storing up survival supplies, probably the best we can do about this 12/21/2012 apocalypse, or Armageddon, or an asteroid vaporizing our world, etc., is to realize that our ultimate Savior and salvation isn’t of, or for, this world; live our lives accordingly; try to love our neighbor as our self; say our prayers and go to sleep!

T&D Columnist Rush Button can be reached by e-mail at buttonrl@aol.com or by phone at 803-534-3724.

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