What if ??

The world is getting more perilous every day, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, pestilence and disease, economic hardship, more governmental control, signs in the heavens- surely Christ is going to return soon- I mean how much worse can it get? I think a lot of Christians think this way and draw the "obvious" conclusion that His return is just around the corner. Is this necessarily true? I mean people have been predicting the end of the world as we know it- Armageddon- since the time of Christ. Why is this the case? We might say they were merely poor students of the prophetic literature and misinterpreted the signs of the times. Why were they so convinced they were correct? I think it it because of the human proclivity to only see things through the lens of our own experience. This is the worst situation I could imagine or have experienced, this must mean Christ will return soon! History is replete with examples of people who thought this way. World War I,II,Nuclear holocaust( Hiroshima and Nagasaki), the Cold War, the Small Pox epidemic, the Black Plague, the Great Depression, the War for Southern Independence,  all surely could have led one to believe that it couldn't get any worse than this! Yet they were wrong. It could and did get worse. Is it reasonable to wonder if the same is true today? The fact that as 21st century American Christians- who have had it pretty easy by the way- can't imagine it getting any worse- Christ must be coming back to save me- is pretty ridiculous. There is a plethora of examples both historically and currently in other nations where Christians have had it a whole lot worse- Sudan, Darfur, Palestine, Malaysia, China. We are called to "stand until the end". Are we prepared to do that? So many Christians are "checking out" of the battle for the faith, their community, their church, because they are so sure Christ is coming back soon. What if He is not. What if His time is still years, decades, centuries in the future. If that is the case would you be doing anything different? Would you be contending for the faith more vigorously? Would you be preparing to protect and provide for your family- all in His strength of course? What would Christ have you to do if the end of the world was NOT nigh? What does He say?