t used to be that apocalyptic talk was relegated to the fringes of society. But a recent study indicates that about a third of Americans believe we're living in the End Times. In March, Putin's Kremlin announced that we were in the Last Days, with the current war simmering in the Middle East; and Peter Theil, from Palantir, has been holding a series of discussions about the Antichrist. Catholics, too, are sounding the alarm: Fr. Chad Ripperger, Catholic author Mark Mallett, and many other sane and holy individuals are indicating that world events might be drawing toward a dramatic climax.

Are we in the "end times"? That is a question that has been asked in every age. We believe, as Christians, that human history is not just a series of meaningless, random events; rather, we are part of a Larger Story—one that is being written by God and is accomplishing His purposes. Every story has a Beginning (Creation and the Fall), a Middle (Christ's Incarnation and Paschal Mystery), and an End (Christ's triumphal return). So, are we in the End?

We are certainly well past the middle—about 2,000 years past the middle—which is about how far Abraham was from Christ, historically. The question that no one knows is how close we are to the end. It could be a year, five years, a hundred years, a thousand years. In my personal opinion, it will not happen in my lifetime.

But "the end" is not just a moment, it is a process. In a sense, one could trace the beginning of "the end" back to the 1400s with the rise of the Renaissance, a system that began to take the attention off of God and put it back on man, seeing the creature without a relation to the Creator.

Thinking of ourselves in "the end" is, to me, just situating ourselves in the Larger Story. We talk about the mundane and the boring nature of our everyday lives—and certainly all of our lives are full of mundane, boring things. But they are not unimportant things.

Many years ago, my sister and I went to go see the first Lord of the Rings together in the movie theater. We were driving home and gazing into a brilliant sunset when she sighed deeply and said, "Oh, I wish life could be like that! An epic quest, a thrilling adventure!" I've often used that quote in talks that I've given because I think it was a profound insight into the human heart.

Human beings want to know that their life is not just a random chance accident, that our presence here on this planet isn't just unnoticed and unimportant. This desire of the human heart was placed there by God because we do play an irreplaceable role in a grand epic—the epic of Salvation History. So those mundane, boring tasks, when seen through that lens, take on monumental significance.