Time is one way

There is a chinese saying: " 树欲静而风不止，子欲养而亲不在。" (Which actually means: " the leaves on the tree want to be quiet and peaceful but the wind blows ceaselessly, the son longs to take care of a loved one but the loved one is no longer there).

Having attended a wake recently again, every time I would have such a niggling burden in my heart. Many believe that death is the end of life. End of all there is. The best thing a filial son/daughter could do in today's context would be to take care of the kin's funeral as a last respects.

If only death settles it. But no, its not the end.

For the christian context, there will come a judgement day where people are held answerable for their actions during their lifetime. For non-Christians, it is absurd a loving God would condemn those who do not believe in Him before He gathers those who believe in Him to Heaven. Is God fair? (as John 3:18 writes: "¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.")

To God, all man is fallen: meaning the innate nature for us is to do the reverse of seeking God and to seek our own desires. This "rebellion" of God being the authority in our life is what God sees as Sin. To God, there is no one who has not sinned and this is the real reason why we are answerable to God. Sin is not to be understood by human moralities. The standard is much higher because a mere anger towards another person is of equivalence to murder, a lust of the eye is as good as adultery...

There can only be a few answers to the world's religion today.
1) Only 1 religion is correct and the only way to salvation, the rest are wrong
2) There could be a few ways to salvation and can be done through various religions
3) All religion are wrong and man cannot save himself from death
We can believe our religion is the sole solution to salvation. If unsure, we better be informed of how to achieve salvation through all religion to protect ourselves from the wrath of the Higher being.

If the Christian perspective is indeed true and we stand sinful before God, how are we to justify ourselves when we meet Jesus? If this was indeed true there are 3 questions we might have to answer when we meet Jesus, seated on the right hand side of the Father:
1) Do we recognise that we have sinned?
2) Jesus Christ came and paid the price of sin for us. What have we done with Jesus Christ?
3) What have we done with the life God has given us?

Maybe not all of us are christians, but if it were true, the answer to these question is a matter of life and death. And the way I come to hear about God, I hope I myself will be prepared to give a account of these 3 questions or more..

Back to the topic of why I picked the quote, it was because my family are non-christians. I come from a buddhist/taoist religion background but am a Christian today. Now, if Jesus Christ is true and the world ends, I would be responsible because I did not strive hard to share Jesus and His gospel to them, causing them to not be able to be answerable to God at the end of days. If I love them, I will want how God has touched my life to touch theirs.

Easy, not gonna be. But its not too hard to try either. Nowadays, I wonder if people truly understood filial piety. Filial piety does not come after the person dies. What really mattered was what we did together with our loved ones to show we care and love them before they departed from us. Does a grand funeral reflect how filial a child is? Not necessary.

I admit God, I'm very sorry for not being a good enough testimony for You in front of my family, parents, siblings. Let me not wait anymore because " 树欲静而风不止，子欲养而亲不在。"

How do we want to show love for our closest people depends on whether we make the effort to do it now or regret later when the chance is over. The same could be said that even our own lives are unpredictable. We will never know if we live to see tomorrow for sure. No one except God holds tomorrow. Let us not take it for granted.