Temporal Obsessions (Super Rough Draft 2.1b)
"The riches of all life on earth are like the cost of one night in a cheap and dirty motel, but what precedes the Christian's life after is an everlasting and overflowing bank of great riches." -Someone who is dead or will one day die soon
This is a story of three men who received a letter from an awesome King. The letter stated,
I am the King of kings,
and I hereby invite you to live with me in my kingdom.
Hold on to this letter as it will be your ticket to enter my kingdom.
Until you arrive at my kingdom, may my words guide you to me
and along with my words, I have given you all that you need
for housing, food, and transportation. Therefore,
please wisely use what I have bestowed to you.
Thus says the King of kings.
Along with the letter came a map with the time and date of the boat’s departure to the kingdom and a bag of gold coins for their necessities.
This is a story. Obviously you know that now, but this is a story of the three men that I saw, who lived seven days of their lives in a motel; waiting seven days for the boat to take them to live with the King of king’s kingdom for the rest of their lives. The three men arrived at the motel and though it was very small, oddly enough it was very busy. It was a plethora of chaos and hullabaloo, with people checking in and out nearly every three seconds. The three men used the King of king’s gold coins in order to pay for their stay.
The manager of the motel was a very well-dressed man, he bore an appearance that was very sophisticated and he conducted himself in a very attractive manner. He carried a very mesmerizing presence; both his speech and his gestures were all very pleasing yet even more so they were all very distracting. Some of the guests would testify that he looked so very gorgeous that he could pass off as a prince or even an angel. He looked like the ideal man to most guests. Perhaps the only flaw in this man in which all the guests would agree upon would be his smell. Yes, his smell and no, it was not a very horrid smell yet it was not very pleasing smell. The guests would only notice it after checking out from the hotel; the smell would never leave their memories, but no one could really describe it. The best way to articulate his smell would be by saying that it was the feeling of drowning, a very horrible drowning, but in smell form.
Indeed, this is the motel manager of the grand and luxurious motel also known as Fleeting Springs. It was this man who handed the keys to the three men as well as every guests and as he would lead people into their respective rooms, he told each of the three men, in a very strong inceptive voice, the same words he tells every other guests that comes to stay at Fleeting Springs, “Stay, enjoy, make yourself comfortable, make yourself at home here in Fleeting Springs.”
Thus, this is where the true story begins because I too, was invited by the King of kings to stay with him in his kingdom for the rest of my life. I too, was once a guest at Fleeting Springs that checked in the same time as the other three men. I too, was told the exact same words from the motel manager and I too, waited for seven days. During those seven days, I observed the three other men because they were doing some rather peculiar things throughout their stay, and at least in my opinion and hopefully yours, it did not make any logical or reasonable sense.
Man #1
Man #1 He had an unquenchable hunger for pleasure resulting in his constant need for entertainment and pleasure, but no matter what he did, he would eventually end up getting bored again. For him, getting bored was far too easy for him so he pursued many things and bought many things in desperate a hope to cure his boredom. From the very moment he got to his room, he began playing loud music while throwing party after party and he used the gold coins to order the most expensive foods in the area and have them delivered. Every night, he would come home with a new girl that always wore risqué clothing. The loud moans resonating from his room lead me to believe that they were having sex and enjoying themselves to quite the degree. Although, I admit could have been wrong, but I surely doubt that. Then every morning, he could be found naked and knocked out in the middle of motel’s parking lot. This was how Man #1 spent his seven days; he seemed to have really enjoyed himself.
Man #2
Man #2 lived normally for the first couple days. Until one night, upon he was on his way back to his room, he saw a man getting mugged from across the street of the motel. Immediately, he ran to his room and hide under his sheets. This event made a significant impact on him as the images of what happened haunted his mind. He was so frightened that he was unable to sleep the whole night. The next day, he bought and installed five new locks on his door, but still the fear kept him awake at night. The day after that, he went on to buy metal bars for the windows, a security system, and a watch dog to protect him. He wanted to be safe from any burglars, murderers, and/or assassins. In the case of any natural disasters that possibly might occur, he bought emergency kits and turned his closet into a mini bunker. He also hired a body guard to watch over him as he sleeps. He made the bodyguard doing everything for him in order that he would never have to leave his room which had turned into his protective fortress. This was how Man #2 spent his seven days; he seemed to have been really safe.
Man #3
Man #3 had lots of wants and was very picky; he was perhaps the most active of the three. He was dreadfully discontent with his motel room the moment he entered it. First, it was the furniture, he loathed the furniture and it was because they were not new, they were not matching sets, and they were not brand names. Therefore, he had the hotel manager replace it all with brand new luxurious tempurpedic furniture. Then, he the lights replaced with new fancy lights because he complained that they were too strenuous on his delicate eyes. He went on to update all of the electronics in the room with latest products and replaced the wooden floor with a white shaggy carpet. He also despised taking cold showers and therefore, he got a hot tub installed into his bathroom. The very next day, he exchanged all of the furniture again because he realized they did not match the carpet. Constantly growing dissatisfied with the wallpaper of his room, he would have it replaced three to four times a day. He spent the rest of his days continually changing his room, sleeping in his bed, and relaxing in his hot tub. This was how Man # 3 spent his seven days; he seemed to have been really comfortable.
These were the three men that I observed. As for me, the manner in which I spent my seven days at Fleeting Springs was very simple, but my manner of living seemed to have bothered the motel manager because he would come up to my room and persistently ask me if everything was okay. He would ask me, “Why aren’t you enjoying yourself or making yourself comfortable or making yourself at home in Fleeting Springs?” and I would logically and reasonably reply with what I believed to be the normal answer which was, “This isn’t my home, I’m only going to be here for a short time, this place is just temporal lodging.” He always gave me a weird look after I said that as if I was some nutcase or lunatic, but I suppose my answer was not the common answer he was used to hearing. In my mind, it made perfect sense, but then again if one were to compare what I was doing with my seven days, to what the other three men were doing, perhaps it would appear as if I were the weird and absurd one because my manner of living was so radically different from the other three. My manner of living was not a common one, but I still believed it to be normal one.
Seven days passed and I arrived at the pier because that was what the King of king’s letter had instructed me to do. The boat came perfectly on time as stated in the King of king’s letter and I needed to use the remaining gold coins provided by the King of kings in order to pay for the ticket to ride the boat. After paying with all that I had left, I joyfully took my seat inside, eager to meet the King of kings.
Man #1 ended up arriving at around the same time as I did, but he seemed to have stumbled upon a problem. Overlooking the King of king’s instructions, he had spent all his gold coins indulging in all of these costly pleasures during his stay at Fleeting Springs and as a result, he could not pay for the ticket in order to board the ship.
Man #2 never arrived; he was too fearful to ever venture outside because he only felt secure inside of his room and ironically as well as tragically, the motel was later bulldozed with him still inside of it. He stayed because he refused to leave the “protection” of his self proclaimed fortress and it ended up killing him.
Man #3 arrived far too late, it seemed that he must have lost track of the time and was not prepared for the coming of the seventh day. He ended up sleeping in as was his habit of doing because he was so comfortable in his room. So when he arrived at the pier, the boat had already departed. Thus, he was left behind.
So oddly enough, I was the only one who made it onto the boat. Now year and years have passed and here I am at the King of king's kingdom, enjoying an amazingly abundant life with the King of kings. I find it very funny because when I look back, I cannot even remember all that I had done during those short seven days at the motel.
“Life is short” this is what I hear a lot of people saying yet I find it such a rare sight to see someone actually living out a life that truly reflects such a statement and here I am now, enjoying for the rest of my life with the King of kings in his kingdom, simply because within those seven days, I lived not for the things that were seen, but for the things unseen. Because I knew, the things that are seen are transient and the things that are unseen are eternal.
) But God used this event to spark questions in my soul. The questions are, "Do people feel the way I felt, when people hear and see our praise and love for Jesus Christ? Are we so crazily obsessed and in love with Him that people around us are beyond curious in the Object of our praise? We say we love Him, but is He seen as surpassingly valuable when we speak of Him who we love the most? DOES OUR TALK ABOUT GOD SALIVATE THE SOULS OF THE PEOPLE AROUND US?" Does it? If it doesn't you NEED to ask yourself, WHY?
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