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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: End Times (02/27/14)
It seems everywhere you turn these days there are reminders that life is but a moment. I have been cutting up a scrapbooking magazine for some pictures and I have found so many little tags and captions designed to capture the moment. ‘Remember the moment’, ‘Live fully, laugh heartily, relax daily, love completely, enjoy the journey’, ‘I am so thankful’, ‘Cherish: to treat with affection and tenderness: Hold Dear’. ‘Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.’ ‘Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.’
Even driving past the corner store, written on their blackboard was the phrase: ‘There are seven days in a week, someday is not one of them.’
And I’m glad, honestly I am that there are so many reminders that we are not here forever, but I really hope it makes people stop and think, what’s next? After their life here, that hopefully they enjoy, are thankful for, cherish, live fully, where are they going next?
Do they have an assurance of the next step if they were to die tomorrow? Do the people around us somehow understand that time as we know it is nearing the midnight hour? Do they understand perhaps sometimes better than we that the end times are near, and they are clutching at every moment, longing to enjoy it but not sure how in the middle of crisis and argument and heartache?
I asked God for an awareness of this reality perhaps a year or two ago, I asked Him to ‘break my heart for what breaks yours’ as the line goes in a popular Hillsong tune, and He did. For a little while there it seemed that I even had a little courage to do something about it. To step out and pray for someone hobbling around the supermarket, to follow the prompting of a night dream and meet someone at the corner pub and tell them Hope. Until fear came barging down the middle of the road, headlights blinding and I stood trapped in that fierce blaze, stunned and sidelined because suddenly it didn’t seem like my little bit could ever be enough, to actually save someone from a dark eternity.
It took a while, nearly 12 long months to realise that it was a lie, because Christ is enough for me, and for them and for everyone, and I’m ready to step out again, because I’m realising more than ever, that time is short. So will you pray for me, for courage and boldness and I’ll pray for you too, and perhaps together we can fulfil the destiny we have here on earth to share the Good News?
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This article has been read 751 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
C D Swanson 
03/09/14
This read like a journal entry and it was intense and extremely moving. It will have an impact on many in a positive way.

Nicely done!

GOd bless~
Beth LaBuff
03/11/14
I enjoyed reading that collage of phrases paragraph. Some of them seemed very witty. But the wisdom in working because time is short trumps them all. Thank you for writing this.
Judy Sauer 
03/12/14
The really enjoyed reading your article. I can totally relate to cutting out inspirational wording from magazines. My purpose was to make collages. I'm not sure if that's what your main character was planning to do.

You used many colorful and descriptive analogies that were very helpful to the story. Your references to "break my heart as my heart breaks you" had the song singing in my head so that was a really good use of wording. Keep writing because I want to read more of your work.
Judy Sauer 
03/12/14
My apologies for misuse of wording in beginning sentence. My vision issues, despite proofing a few times, saw "I" where "The" started the sentence. Humbling experience for me and I hope it didn't confuse you.
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
07/24/14
This is such a sweet testimony. I can totally relate to it. I don't know what happened, apparently I blinked and thirty years had gone by. I went from struggling how to figure out how to wash my newborn without getting soap in her eyes to watching her interact with her husband who clearly loves her. I'm blessed, but still think time flew by. You reminded me how important it is to share my love with Jesus to everyone I encounter. I can't think of anyone who I would want them to miss that special boat.

I noticed you switched your voice a few times. In the first line you used the second person, the universal you, then in the beginning, you were using first person, and doing it quite well. That first line could easily be switched to everywhere I turn. Later, you use third person plural (they or them). Those lines too could be in the first person, making your story even more intimate.

YYou have a true gift and with a bit of tweaking, this could be the basis of an awesome testimony. If you haven't entered the contest this year and weren't in it last user, I'd really encourage you to go for it. You have some powerful thoughts and will make more of a difference than you could ever imagine. If you need any help, let me know and I'll do my best. God bless.