The way we view this world and our time on it, affects how we interact with life. If we believe that we are supposed to just sit around and wait for the return of Jesus, we won’t focus much if any of our attention to impact the world around us. If God’s goal was to rescue us from the physical earth, then when Jesus rose from the dead he would have taken his people with him. But he didn’t.
Instead In Acts 1:8-9 Jesus said to his disciples,
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”
Jesus gave his people the Holy Spirit, power, authority and responsibility to transform this world. After that Jesus left. His people did not.
In 2 Peter 3:8-9 he says,
“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
God’s will is that none should perish, but everyone to come to repentance. God’s desire is that the world that has been reconciled to himself through Jesus would actually enter into reconciliation.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”