Is it that urgent?

I was at work in the Chinese restaurant on Saturday night. It was really busy and i was constantly walking up, down and around the restaurant for a full 5 hours non stop. I was quite an experience and i certainly learnt a lot from it. But that was not it. A rather amusing thing happened as the night was nearing to an end. There was this family of about 13 people seated at the main table of the restaurant. I think they were celebrating the birthday of their father/grandfather/father in law who must be approximately 75 years of age. They were all having a good time and i still remember that old man downing a couple pines of beer. As everybody was waiting for their desserts suddenly, the old man started to fall forward with eyes closed. I was a mere 1 metre away from their table. I watched in a bit of shock while nearly every single person at the table stood up. Some just burst out crying, some quickly attended to the old man and the others turned to me and shouted:'Call the ambulance!!'. The chief waiteress quickly grabbed the phone and called for the ambulance. It must have been about 10-15 seconds when the family members kept asking me to call the ambulance. The worst thing was they kept asking me how long it will take for the ambulance to come. All i could answer was 'they are calling now' and 'ambulance should come soon'. They all suspected a heart attack. This all happened so fast and because of the amount of people crowded around the old man i couldn't really see what was happening.

Suddenly i saw the old man lift up his head and open his eyes. I think it was because of the bad odour from everybody that woke him. He explained that he was tired and opted for a 20 winks. hahaha.. i really couldn't believe it and nearly burst out laughing. Strains of laughter broke out among the family members themselves but some of the crying grew worse for some reason. Maybe that proves that tears for joy usually produce more tears than sadness. In the end, the ambulance still came shortly after. They still took the old man in a wheel chair and brought him to hospital just as a precaution. I also over heard the doctor asking the old man while wheeling him out saying:'Sir, you mean the food over here is that dodgy until you fainted?' Hahaha.. It wasn't the most pleasant thing to experience while i was there but how it all turned out, i found it rather amusing.

Another thing that happened during the week was a family friend that passed away. Uncle Ron was dad's former boss years ago in kluang. He watched me grow up and constantly came over to my house to play with me. I do not have any recollection of him and his wife, Aunty Damaris because they left kluang when i was still quite young. The amazing thing was that every single year after they left, they never failed to send us Christmas presents. They were close to my parents and treated us as their own children as they had none. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit them in November with mom and dad. I remembered that time while we were having dinner. I was truly amazed at the way he presented himself as a person. The knowledge he had of things was astounding as well and it must definitely be the amount of books he reads. When dad texted me on thursday to tell me about his passing, i was speechless. Thoughts ran through my mind wildly. A man that i have only met once a couple of months ago somehow has made quite an impact in my life. The promise that i made to him that i would visit him again soon to play chess can now never be done. The thing that breaks my heart is the fact that he hasn't received salvation. At least not to my knowledge. God have mercy on him, please.

Sigh.. I have been feeling really tired for the past week. Not only physically but more so mentally. Issues to deal with, assignments yet to complete, badminton and football training doesn't exactly help much. This 2 things that has happened made me think about life. It made me think about how unpredictable life can sometimes be. In church today, the speaker mentioned that according to scientist our world will totally poison itself in about 15 years time. Not 50, not 20 but 15 years. As i thought about it, there was a sudden urgency inside that leap in me. It seems so foreseeable. So near, so soon. The speaker then further pointed out the closeness of Chirst's return which relates to earth's self destruction . It's always the case of time is short but so much still to do.

We constantly hear this cliche 'Live everyday as if Chirst will be returning tomorrow.'

Are we that urgent for the Lord's cause? Is the return of Chirst important to us? Is it important to me personally?

The thing is that important will lead to urgent if nothing is done. But i think whether we like it or not it is entering the urgent stage already.

Lord, help us to realise the urgency of your return. Let us be ready and not regret. Amen