The Good Times
This young man plays the lotto against his father’s wishes and wins the jackpot, a US $100 000 000! He decides it is too boring at home, he is going to a nice country where he can spend the money as he wishes. His father pleaded with him to stay, but he just turned his back on his dad, packed his things and left without saying goodbye.
He decides to go to Egypt for the African Soccer Cup, but on the way there he tours around a bit. In Cairo he went to stay in the 5 star Sheridon Hotel. He orders the best food and wine. He goes to the most expensive shops to buy him new clothes fitting for this desert climate. Soon the people catch on that this foreigner is wealthy and likes spending, so they hang out with him to share in this luxurious lifestyle. He especially enjoys the company of the beautiful Middle eastern ladies.
He enjoys it so much that in Cairo that he decides to stay on in Egypt after the African Cup finished. He goes around sight seeing and visits the old part of Cairo where the graves are small “houses” big enough to fit the coffin. Some people illegally stay in these graves. It is quaint, but very spooky.
He heard about the Christians living on the refuse dumps, so he goes to have a look at this. No matter what he offered the taxi driver, a Muslim, he did not want to enter this filthy, infidel neighbourhood. He had to walk the last Km up the hill. The people keep their animals in their homes, the streets are filthy and muddy. Worst of all at this one house they slaughter some pigs in the street! The blood mingling with the muddy filth.
Uphill at the side of the mountain it is better. There are three large caves where the people have made beautiful places of worship. Looking down on this little village built on the refuge dumps, he sees how they sort the city’s refuge to use it again for other purposes. To his shock he sees they have pigsties at the back of their houses, right at the kitchen door. He can just imagine how terrible the flies must be there, and the stench! He is happy to return to his nice clean, cool hotel where there is a wonderful fragrance hanging in the air.
A US $100 000 000 is a lot of money, but it does not last forever. With a shock he discovers one morning that he does not have enough money to pay his hotel account. He pleads with the hotel manager to let him work off the remainder of his debt, but the manager has no mercy. Either he pays by noon or gets locked up by the police. The young man goes to all his friends to hear if they cannot help him in his hour of need, but they disappear quietly leaving him alone with his problem. All he can do is to sell his expensive clothes and jewels to get the outstanding amount.
He leaves the hotel with the clothes on his back, nowhere to stay or wash, nothing to eat. He is sleeping out on the streets, but is scared to death they will mug, assault and even kill him. Before long his clothes become sweaty, sticky and dirty in this terrible heat. Everybody looks suspiciously at him and chases him away. He tries to find a job, but nobody wants to employ a dirty vagabond.
Very hungry he decides to return to the Refuse dump village. Surely there he will find work and get something to eat. He discovers when you walk, this village is quite a distance out of the city. Exhausted, sweat pouring down his brow he arrives there, but still no luck. At nights he sleeps up the hill outside the grotto churches, at least it is safer than in the city. After about a week he is fortunate to get a job tending to a man’s pigs. Every day he has to collect the kitchen slop and throw it in the troughs of the pigs. He is getting thin and weak of hunger, having to live off a few slices of bread per day. He is hungry enough to eat the slop, but afraid it might cost him his job and the few slices of bread he is getting.
Hungry and dirty he is sitting outside up the hill in the dark, feeling miserable and sick. What can he do? He can’t go on living like this?! He is angry at himself for just squandering his money like that without investing some. He can’t even return home because when he came he bought a one-way ticket. Even so the way he left home, has closed that door. He did not even write to his father once in all the time has been in Cairo.
WHAT CAN HE DO? WHEN DID THINGS GO WRONG FOR HIM?
Are we not spiritually in the same boat as this young man? We do our own thing, thinking we are OK and don’t even give God a second thought. Just like this young man, we will only discover our miserable situation when it is too late. What can we do to change the situation?