a story, a soapbox, and a request.

I don't usually post about things like this.

There are very large parts of my life that don't make it to e-world.

But I found out some news today that forced me to my knees and I feel the need to tell the story. To have it memorialized. To throw it out here into e-world to be read and felt. Even as I type this, my keyboard is wet with tears. I just need to tell you.

I have a casual acquaintance named Gong Qin (family name withheld). He is 45 years old.

A few days after Christmas he was diagnosed with lung cancer and told he had 6 months to live. This morning I was told that he recieved wrong prescriptions from the hospital. He now has a week. If that.

But this is not the tragedy. Because the truth is, we will all die.

The tragedy is how this man's heart has taken to his news. He is a Believer. He has been involved in Chi.nese fellowships for many years. He was raised as a Budhst and changed his mind after reading the Good Book for the first time in his 30's. He believed the stories inside that book and it changed his life - gave him hope, direction, and a purpose. It changed his family life, his work life, and his politics.

But this week Gong Qin has asked to be buried as a Budhst. Because he can no longer believe in a Father who would do this to him; who would cause him to be a victim of medical malpractice and to have his life cut short when there are so many years left to live.

He is so angry. He has given up in one week everything that turned his life for the past 10 years.

This is what I want to scream from the mountains....people, God is a master story teller. You can't run when things get bad. People go to the movies and pay hard earned money to see destruction on the big screen and then freak out and become angry and doubt His presence when destruction happens in real life.

Take Jap.an for example.

I have a Japa.nese classmate.

She is a rock.

Every day I look at her and wonder what she is thinking. How can she be so peaceful when her home country is in turmoil. I doubt I could have the self-control she does. Thankfully, her family was not impacted by the natural disasters because she is from the south, but she has friends who have died in the north.

She is not angry at God. She understands that bad things happen. Even to good people. That these horrible things are not to give us reasons to turn away or doubt that a big, nice, fuzzy guy in the sky loves us and cares for us. That's not how it is. These are things to add to our story on earth.

People rescuing each other. Depending on each other. Countries policing each other and aiding each other. People die. People survive. People are resilient. God is a story teller that only wants us to recognize Him and for us all to be saved in the end. He doesn't wish for any of us to perish in the end (hell), but our time on earth can't be all rainbows and butterflies.

Crap happens. But God is just and does not forget us while we wail and rebuild and work.

I hope to see Gong Qin before he dies.

I hope he changes his mind. And that he clings to the ideals that he built his healthy life around. I hope that he realizes that he shouldn't run when times are hard, when death is knocking and the end is near. I hope he remembers that there is hope and that death doesn't have to be the end.

I've probably said more than I should.

So now I just beg you; friends, friends of my parents, classmates, countrymen, random blog readers, please remember Gong Qin today. Remember him while his body is in pain, and while is soul is in turmoil.

There's a story being written. It's a big one. More intense than any story Hollywood can churn out. It's life.

walk slow. xoxo.

please be mindful of comments made on this post. thank you.