Should Christians be worried about the end times?

I can see it now in the comments: but Father, you've got to see my 16-part video on AI and facial recognition in China. The reality is that since the beginning of the early church, people have always to some degree thought it was the end times. You see it even in the time of St Paul. Fifty-odd years ago people would come to Father Seraphim Rose and say, Father, we're in the end times, what should we do?

His response was very telling: whether or not we are basically doesn't matter. What we need to focus on is our prayer, our repentance, our life in Christ, and whatever comes to pass will come to pass. When people start looking at end times material, they tend to become emotionally and psychologically unbalanced, because they're not focusing on Christ. They lose their peace, which is a byproduct of the Holy Spirit, and they become hungry for things that make them fearful.

It's like a dopamine hit in the opposite direction: if you're always on high alert, you can never be surprised, so you keep feeding the cycle. But that's not the gospel. At the Bridegroom Matins we talk about being watchful for Christ's coming, paying attention to the Bridegroom, not the world. Maybe technology is so advanced that the realities of the Book of Revelation are closer than ever.

Sure. But every time in Christian history we've been closer to the end times. Focusing on those markers instead of Christ is a misuse and misdirection of our minds.