Put your house in order

Isaiah 38:1

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”  

Death is never a pleasant thing. Simply because we all don't know when our time to die and there's the feeling of not wanting to leave what our physical being has experienced on earth. For some if the doctor tells us we only have a limited time to live, it's such a crushing blow.

I've a rather cukoo perspective of living because I don't desire to live to a ripe old age. I rather pass on young and at some prime age of my life, preferably before it goes all downhills. Past the 40's and guys get bald, fat, sag, unfit, aches....you get my drift.

Yet, seemingly open as I am to dying, it makes me shiver in jitters when I fly and during turbulence, imagine that this could be it! something could just happen to the plane. Yes, it's a silly thought but boy is it chicken-hearted when we figure if our life is coming to an end. I can imagine how Hezekiah felt when it was told to him that he was to die.

Since I started traveling as a young adult, I often attempted to leave a full set of instructions or wrap up anything that I felt should be important to be dealt in my absence, just in case something happens. Paranoid as I am, I'm also quite a planner simply because I do believe the important things of life always need to be put in order and any odd and ends wrapped up during key moments, in my case before I fly an airplane. I believes this allows us to be more diligent in living our lives and with a greater sense of urgency, not taking for granted the breath.

The Psalmist says "Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom". May you live life always remembering to put the important things of your life in order, so when that final day of your life arrives, you know you've lived life without regrets and with purpose.

M.

Never alone

Romans 14:7-8

For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 

I have always been in awe of the crazy individuals whom I come across in my backpacking days and wonder how they could just go all about to see the world alone.

The past CNY holiday, I started experiencing what they do and how they live their life. The solo flight to Barcelona was fine, because it was just another business trip where I travel solo. But when I came out of the arrival hall and had to navigate to the departure hall to catch my next flight, that was when it started feeling different. Basically the airline counter wasn’t open and won’t be till 2 hours before take-off. That meant , I had to linger around the departure hall (not transit area!) from 9am till 1:40pm and without internet, companions to chit chat or shops to while time away, I literally was stumped!

So I spent the next many hours sitting on different seats and reading the 2 books I brought alone, all the while staying awake because I needed to look after my belongings. Thank God for the 2 books that I brought, one was a gift (5 people you meet in heaven) and the other a guidebook of Warsaw from the library. Boring as the guidebook was, I had something to flip through. Didn’t help that the other book was also rather dull. Suddenly the reality of having to explore a new place alone hit me and I really wondered if it was a crazy thought to plan such a long overseas holiday in the cold sub zero temperatures of Poland.

I must say the jitters of going to an unknown country on a moment of impulse became more unnerving than the earlier excitement of being able to escape a boring CNY. Everyday that I spent traveling alone in Poland started with uneasiness. But it eased away as I started finding myself at ease with being alone and having experience a safe environment. Even eating lunch and wondering about to pass time before my ride home came became tolerable.

It has been an extremely enjoyable holiday, more so as I found myself never alone.  Don't get me wrong, traveling alone is really not for the faint-hearted, but when I rest my head every night and reflect at how God protected and was there for me, it really brought a new dimension to the journey of life. We are never alone.

M.