Compassionate Steps
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under
heaven: a time to be born and a time to die. . . (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 NIV)
We will all face death one day.
That is an inevitable fact and to those who never find a true and authentic
relationship with God, it is a damnation for eternity, but for a genuine
Christian, it is a hope of meeting God one day.
Yes, we will all face death and
the only question is when. . . What if you only have one month left to live?
As that question is being raised
up into my mind, I look back into my life (the things I accomplished up to the
things I come to regret) and come up to conclusion that Solomon is right,
everything is vanity under the sun. As most of us strive to reach for our
dreams and live our life to the fullest as we think it can be, are we really
building an eternal treasure for eternity? Or as we return to dust, things will
just perish and passes by together with our passing?
For me, I refuse to believe that
I will just perish that way without a good fight of faith, as what one of my
favorite passage in Romans 8 says: “. . .
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by
the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be
liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of
the children of God (v. 20-21)”
If you ask me if a sinner man
like us is possible to have a hope of freedom to eternity, my answer is yes,
only if we believe in our Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, repent from
all our sins, be baptize by water and the Holy Spirit of God and grow in the
knowledge and fullness of the life of Christ until the fruit of the Spirit is
already visible in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I can enumerate all these things but
knowing these are nothing compared to completely having our lives living those
things.
Death is not and will not be our
own choice. It is a natural law of nature as a result of sin. As a Christian
myself, I may die in my mortal body, but I refuse to die spiritually forever so
I want to train myself in discipline to live the way Christ live.
If however, dying is so near and
is evident in front of me, then I came up to four things in my bucket list:
1.
A
Missionary Journey
I don’t know where
and when this passion really started, but I remember myself watching a loving
couple from Utah who is eager to adopt orphan children from Ukraine. They have
already 5 or 6 biological kids at the time, but the wife dreamed about a
beautiful girl and she told his husband that she eventually wants to adopt a
kid, and right in Ukraine, she saw the same little girl in her dream. They
adopted the girl but she keeps on crying every night and eventually they found
out that she has an older sister on the same orphanage who took care of her.
One Christmas, the older sister sent them a letter of thanks saying how
grateful she is for them to adopt her little sister. As the story unfolds, they
soon learn how the older one used to knock on every neighbor’s door just to ask
for a milk or anything for her lil’ sis to eat. The whole story touches the
hearts of the old couple. The husband even shed tears on an interview, saying
how their hearts broke seeing these helpless kids without parents and have
nobody to care for them. The last news I’ve heard about the couple is that they
adopted the older sister also and another Ukrainian baby boy who was addicted
at birth (because her biological mother is a drug addict and still taking in
drugs on her pregnancy). Their eight kids keeps on growing up happy and
together. I search for other same stories of adoption and it stirs a heart of
compassion in me that if one day, God will gift me a family of my own, I will
probably adopt also orphan kids and I also wants to share Jesus to every little
corners of the world that God will permits me to step my feet on to. If I only have one month to live my life, I
wish to spend a week on a missionary trip (probably with Compassion Bloggers or
School of Christ ministry) touching little kids and even native people on some
little corners of the world to come to faith to our Lord Jesus Christ. As I
share to them the love of Christ, my prayer is for them to also reflect that
love to other people they’ll come across.
1.
To
Spend Time With Family
When I was little,
my sisters and I were very close. We were also filial to our parents,
especially to my loving mama who took care of us ever since my papa died. We
used to be vocal in saying I love you to each other every night before we went
off to bed and sleep. As we grew up and money problems brought a huge gap on
our little loving home, we keeps on growing really apart. As my little sister
and I came to know Jesus, my older sister went on a very separate perspective
in life. We may be at home together, but our hearts and minds were really
apart. I am still close to my mother but I am showy no more of my love for her.
Why? It is not me anymore, I think, though in my heart, I really want to tell
her how I can’t live a day without her. Thinking of a time when she will no
longer be around, I think I might as well go with her in her grave. God didn’t
want it though. As I strive for an eternal pursuit, my prayer is for Mama, Ate
Michelle, Tito Ed, Ate Jillian, Kuya Ipe, Ivan and all other relatives will
also find a real hope in the hope that I found. Currently, I spent most of my
time in the city because of my occupation, but if I only have one month left to
live, I will spend two weeks in my loving home in Laguna in order to close the
emotional and spiritual gap within my family and take the moment as an
opportunity to share God with them. I also want to fulfilled my greatest dream
with them, a happy family photograph that will capture my moments with them.
1.
To
experience the Nature of God’s Creation
In my entire
life, I might say that there were only two episodes in my life that I
experienced the beauty of God’s creation:
(1)
My one month stay in Flora, Apayao to attend 99th Batch of School of
Christ International Philippines
(2)
My one day team building experience with my
Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Philippines Accounting Family in Small Anawangin Beach
Resort, Pandaquit, San Antonio, Zambales.
The first one, I experience going on Apulug, Cagayan
for an outreach church service and even go up into the mountain to worship
together with the native locals. We also went on church hopping (worship
service-after-worship service). I can feel the whole Spirit of God in every
places that I went and it makes me desire to become a missionary even more and
also to see and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation.
The second one, it is my first time to come across
with a mountain in a close range. It is as if I can touch it. I can also see
the peace and serenity on the waves of the Zambales sea. I even spend an
afternoon sharing Christ with some of my colleagues.
The whole idea is this, seeing the beauty and the
magnificence of the creations of God, it makes me remember how our God is all
powerful. Knowing that is already enough.
Being close to nature also gives me a feeling of
freedom. Being said, I want to go in a road trip from places-to-places alone
and meet new people for four whole days. That concludes my third bucket list.
1.
A
daily communion with God
In my six years
as a Christian, I admit that I still haven’t finish reading the whole Bible,
and that is to my shame, claiming that I have an authentic relationship with
God yet I don’t know Him at all (at His
100% I mean) . For the three remaining days of my life, I want to spend it on
praying, fasting, and reading His words. My greatest dream is that in the last
days of my life, I will spend it on the Lord’s Most Holy Place, that it is only
me before God, that I know that I have a secured hope of eternity and I can’t
wait to hear Him say, “Well done, thy good and faithful servant. Come and enter
the joy of your master!”
It could be a
day, a week, a month or a year! The reality is we don’t know when would be our
end. Are you ready for that day?
I want to hear from you:
If you only have one month left to live, how
will you spend your last days? My blog is now open for comments . . . .
This blog
post is a blog for Compassion Bloggers under June 2019 Writing Prompt “One
Month to Live”
Compassion Bloggers is a ministry of
Compassion in Jesus’ name whose mission is to release children from poverty .
~
“This is how
we know what true love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought
to lay down our lives for our brothers. (1 John 3:16)
Laying our lives means sharing the very life of Christ. It is not
only about preaching the word or quoting the scriptures, but becoming the
living Word ourselves- the word who became flesh (John 1:14) like Jesus did. We
could do that by doing little things into people surrounding our circle or
getting involve for a higher cause. What are you willing to do to love God and
other people?
Join us and make a Compassionate Step for others today!
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Hi guys. I want to hear from you. You can freely tell me what you think. God bless!