“We all end up in diapers”

Daisy in that Benjamin Button movie said that. 

It is so apropos to end that movie.

So too in life.

In the season of New Year, minds tend to wander cyclically.

I did get to spend a small portion of my life in certain jobs that I really liked.
It’s a blessing to be able to get paid doing the things you enjoy!

I wouldn’t say it happened all the time but some of the time.

Like some of those years in government, I got to be involved in initiating new things in the environmental noise control field with like-minded colleagues.
With some lasting results, I’d add.

And like those few short years in San Francisco talking to seniors, visiting families, writing regular letters, teaching, preaching, and of course getting pampered by lovely members, especially seniors, and having the best Chinese foods in America!
All while I was getting paid to do my job!

Then like the final years of my career doing exactly what I had envisaged doing in the beginning.
I got to turn around a small organisation into profitability, to get to know different students and churches, to teach and preach regularly.
And during a tough period, toughed it out with committed colleagues leaving a mark in history.
I would have given money to do it, had I not been so blessed to receive a salary!

But on the other hand, regrets are aplenty.
I never got to do water skiing.
No parachuting either.
Never been to the pyramids, nor safari.

Most likely I won’t get to check those off my list before I kick the bucket.
But so be it.

Rather, more concerning is that I did have tons of failings, errors, and sins.
Things that every now and then keep me from getting into sleep.
I’d probably carry them with me to my grave.

“We all end up in diapers.”

Because Benjamin was born old, in a diaper.
And Daisy was comforting his impending death, as a baby, again in a diaper.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Yes, I could deal with this diaper-to-diaper cycle by sketching my life briefly as I have done above briefly.
You win some and you lose some.

There’s also an alternative. 
That’s the what I call, “the buffet way.”
No one goes to a buffet with a full stomach.
I bet not even with food inside.
And when they left, none with empty stomach.

There’s always the same mind in a hall full of diners: grab as much as you can and eat as much as you can during the however number of hours of the buffet.
You get your money’s worth.

You came in a diaper.
You end up in a diaper.
Grab the most you can in this life.

But the “buffet way”, popular as it is in Hong Kong, is now not my preferred way.
I wish I were successful in Paul’s way.

That way now appears to me much more reasonable, strategic, insightful, and dare I say beautiful.
Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.
(1 Tim 6: 6-8, NLT)

Daisy says we all end up in diapers, our first dress as babies.

Paul is even more brutally honest.
We come with nothing, and we can’t take anything leaving.

Though his end conditions are similar to “the buffet way”, what Paul recommends to do during the “buffet hours” is absolutely refreshing.
And restful.

No need to struggle what and when to grab.
No need to strategise.
Just live life with godliness.

Sounds so soothing.

I wish I had picked it up sooner.
Then I would have no regrets about missing water skiing, parachuting, the pyramids and safari.

And of course no burdens that would keep me awake with a sigh.