The Perfect Last Day

In the far past - well I guess it was not too long ago... it just seems like millions of hours ago - I took a certain Literature class that I was forced to write in. To be honest, most of the time writing stresses me out. However on rare occasions, words flow out of me. In the rare occasion that I wrote this paper for homework, I was very ill indeed. You see, for some reason I could not swallow food very well, and if I swallowed it the food would mostly come back up. Not a pretty site, I must say. And so, without food and without energy and without sleep because my throat hurt terribly from the wicked stomach acid, I wrote. I wanted to have a healthy appetite and to digest my food. But I could not. I was delirious from lack of food, and was escorted to the Hospital (where very hospitable people serve you :). I desperately wished I could swallow a huge white pill that would give me all the nutrients I needed for the day. However, I could not find one. Thus, I was forced to spend hours forcing nasty food down my sore throat all the while knowing that it would soon come back up. In light of the fact that I was unable to pleasurably eat food...here is the paper written while I was starving to death:

29 October 2010

The Perfect Last Day

If you knew you would die tomorrow, what would you do today…the last twenty-four hours of your life? This question filled me with excitement, and I began contemplating all of the little things that would make me happy. Pretty soon, I had the whole last day of my life planned out. First, I would fill a magnificent crystal bowl with fresh luscious strawberries, blue berries, kiwis, and pineapple, and eat, savoring every bite. I would then sit in the center of a garden surrounded by rainbow colored flowers and fluttering butterflies, and inhale the sweet air. In this garden, a white grand piano would stand majestically. I would allow my fingers to dance over the keys creating magical lullabies. After soaking in this sweet, colorful, and musical beauty, I would travel to a bamboo forest and hug the most furry and soft panda bear. Then I would crawl deep into a cave and stare at the crystallizing wonders of the underworld. Returning to the Earth’s surface, I would find an open grassy field that stretched to the horizon. In this green expanse, I would run like the wind, turn cart-wheels, and twirl around with my arms outstretched. Experiencing so much happiness, I would be filled with a dazed sleepiness. Thus, I would travel to the beach. Lulled by the sound of the waves crashing on the sandy seashore, nothing would make me happier than to jump onto a huge bed covered in fluffy white pillows and comforters. I would snuggle down into them and fall, actually ascend, into a deep refreshing sleep. While I slept, I would soar through clouds and rainbows and swim with Merfolk in their golden palaces.

As I looked back on this imaginary perfect last day, a flaw shone through. All of these experiences would only please my five senses. They were not wrong in themselves, but the position in which I put them was flawed. The simple pleasures of this world, as long as they are not sinful, are blessings from God. They are like little treats or desserts. The problem was that I was eating them as my main course. In Luke 12:34 Jesus explains, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” My utmost treasure was in pleasing my physical senses. My heart was in them, and they were my idols. I was placing them above God saying, “They will fulfill me. These experiences will satisfy my desire for happiness. They will make the perfect last day. I do not need God.” What happens after someone fills up on sweets? They will be very energized and happy for a time. However, after the sugar rush wears off, a crash follows. That would happen to me if I placed pleasing my five senses above pleasing the sixth sense which is not of this body but of the soul: Faith. The treats of this world would fill me and excite me for a time as my senses munched on them. Nevertheless, I would start feeling sick and become tired of them. I would always want more… constantly searching for happiness and fulfillment, but finding disappointment and emptiness instead. I cannot fill the hole in my soul with unsatisfying worldly treats. I need real food.

I want to give the last day of my life to God, and feast on His food. God has given me everything I have. “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). God gave me a body with senses, a soul that will live forever, and one life to live. The very fact that I survive each day is a blessing from God. Because He created and furnished me with these presents, He knows the best and most fulfilling way to use them. Thus, I will simply, “give to God what is belongs to God” (Luke 20:25). The day is His.

Once the day is God’s, I must discover what His will for the day is and savor it. In John 4: 32, 34 Jesus declared, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about. My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.” God also promises that, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13, 14) . . . “those who were hungry hunger no more” (1 Samuel 2:5). I do not want to throw my day away by snacking on the unquenchable desires of my five senses. I will feast on the everlasting food of God, His Word and His will, and cry out to my Father: “Here I am, send me. If you are willing, show me your will for this day, and give me the strength to follow and obey you with all of my heart. Drench me in Your perfect Love and let it bubble over into the lives around me.” My Father will answer, “Ask and it will be given to you. I am willing. Come, and you will see. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. I have loved you with an everlasting love.” (Matthew 7:7, Luke 5:13, John 1:39, Luke 9:23, Jeremiah 31:3). I want to do what King David said, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). As I feast and delight myself in Him and His will, my unsatisfying fleshly desires will fade. God will consume me with Himself and give me a deeper yearning for Him. “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1, 2). Soon I will realize that He is my food and my dessert, but a dessert whose sweetness will last forever.

The day that God rescues me from myself and my selfish desires completely, and I live wholly for my Savior is worthy of being my last. I do not know when God will come and carry me to His eternal home. “I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you” (Revelation 3:3). Thus, I need to live every day as if it were the last. Whatever God wants me to do; I will depend on his mighty strength and obey. If His will is for me to studiously discover His hidden treasures in the Bible, I will obey. Whether it is bursting with gratitude towards my Savior and sharing with everyone around me the Gospel, the Story of God’s love, in my actions and words, I will obey. It does not matter if I am uncomfortable, and the world hates and persecutes me. God is my Comforter. He has overcome the world. I will feast on God’s perfect will for me, and an everlasting Joy will consume and satisfy me. This will be a day worthy of a name: The Perfect Last Day.