How can an understanding of the Rapture give balance to our lives?

The doctrine of the Rapture, when the Lord descends and catches His people up to meet Him in the air, is designed to give us courage for life, and it brings balance because we know absolutely what is going to happen but not exactly when. That combination keeps us both diligent and patient: we serve as if we only have today, giving ourselves wholly to what we do, and yet we wait as if we have a thousand years, realizing the Rapture could come today or next year or in a hundred years. So we are neither asleep and unafraid of nothing, nor frantic, but alert, sober, and steady.