By Xinxin, Japan
Awakening From a Dream
Another two months went by, and Lianfu suddenly felt an unbearable pain in his back, which was accompanied by a cough. His symptoms were exactly the same as Lao Wang’s. They had the same dream and now the same disease. Could it be that their ends were also to be the same? Lianfu’s heart was filled with dread.
Xiaojuan’s friends heard that Lianfu was ill, so they came to see him. Some gave him massages; some bore witness to God’s work of the last days for him and fellowshiped about Satan’s affliction on mankind, God’s will to save mankind and other such aspects of the truth. He felt what these sisters fellowshiped made a lot of sense, so he started to investigate God’s work in the last days.
Once, while he was chatting with the sisters, a sister read him a passage of God’s words: “‘Money makes the world go round’; is this a trend? Compared to the fashion and gourmet trends you mentioned, is this not much worse? ‘Money makes the world go round’ is a philosophy of Satan, and it prevails among the whole of mankind, in every human society. You could say that it is a trend because it has been instilled in the heart of every single person. From the very beginning, people did not accept this saying, but then they gave it tacit acceptance when they came into contact with real life, and began to feel that these words were in fact true. Is this not a process of Satan corrupting man? Perhaps people do not understand this saying to the same degree, but everyone has different degrees of interpretation and acknowledgment of this saying based on things that have happened around them and on their own personal experiences. Is that not the case? Regardless of how much experience someone has with this saying, what is the negative effect that it can have on someone’s heart? Something is revealed through the human disposition of the people in this world, including each and every one of you. How is this thing that is revealed to be interpreted? It is the worship of money. Is it hard to remove this from someone’s heart? It is very hard! It seems that Satan’s corruption of man is deep indeed! So after Satan uses this trend to corrupt people, how is it manifested in them? Do you feel that you could not survive in this world without any money, that even one day without money would be impossible? People’s status is based on how much money they have, as is the respect they command. The backs of the poor are bent in shame, while the rich enjoy their high status. They stand tall and proud, speaking loudly and living arrogantly. What does this saying and trend bring to people? Is it not true that many people make any sacrifice in the pursuit of money? Do many people not lose their dignity and integrity in the pursuit of more money? Moreover, do many people not lose the opportunity to perform their duty and follow God for the sake of money? Is this not a loss for people? (Yes.) Is Satan not sinister to use this method and this saying to corrupt man to such a degree? Is this not a malicious trick? As you progress from objecting to this popular saying to finally accepting it as truth, your heart falls completely into Satan’s grasp, and therefore you inadvertently come to live by the saying.”
The sister then fellowshiped this: “Since mankind was corrupted by Satan, it has been using mistaken viewpoints to deceive and corrupt us, such as ‘Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing,’ ‘Money makes the world go round,’ and ‘Money is first.’ After accepting these satanic viewpoints, we begin to esteem money and to think that money is everything. We now think that if we have money, not only will we enjoy a good material lifestyle, but our status will improve and we will be more confident when speaking and will thus earn the admiration of others. In short, with money, it’ll be easy for us to do anything; without money, it is difficult for us to take a single step forward. Under the influence of these concepts and notions, in order to make money, we’ve left our hometowns, and toiled and worked overtime, only living for money as if we were money-making machines. Some people even throw away their lives to earn money. All we think and talk about every day is money. Our whole life is about money, which has become our only goal to pursue. We spend most of our lives in earning money. Some have failed in the process of pursuing money; some have started to enjoy lives in the material sense, but they still live an empty, worthless, and meaningless life. Therefore, pursuing money isn’t a true and correct path for a human life. In fact, it’s Satan’s plot. Satan uses these mistaken viewpoints to bind and afflict us. If we can’t see through Satan’s trickery, we will have to be trampled on and fooled by it, and will finally lose our lives.”
God’s words and the sister’s fellowshiping woke Lianfu up. Through them, he understood that pursuing money is Satan’s trickery and also its method of corrupting mankind. Thinking back over the years, he had done any dirty and tiring job to make money. After he went to Japan from China, he still made money for decades and hardly took a day off. But in the end, not only did he not earn much money, but he also ruined his health. He was living in a hard and exhausting way for money. It seemed to him that pursuing money could only bring people calamities rather than happiness. Later on, Lianfu began to read the words of God together with Xiaojuan.
Lao Wang’s Passing Away
In the blink of an eye, late fall arrived and it became a little cool. There were fallen leaves on both sides of the roads. At that time, Lianfu’s heart was full of melancholy.
He walked into the restaurant, which was pervaded by a gloomy atmosphere. Two employees were setting out the tables and chairs, and the boss was counting his money at the bar. Lianfu passed by the bar and greeted his boss as usual. His boss lifted his head and looked at Lianfu. The boss didn’t look very well. He paused an instant and then said: “Lao Wang’s family in our hometown just called and said he has died.” Lianfu was stunned and asked in astonishment: “What? Lao Wang died?” His boss nodded and said: “Um,” and then he lowered his head and continued to count his money. Just then, a gust of autumn wind was blowing through the door-curtain. The waiter beside the glass door walked up and slammed it shut. With a wrinkled brow, Lianfu walked toward the kitchen with heavy footsteps. As he walked, he said to himself: “Lao Wang has died. He really has died.”
After returning home, Lianfu sat on the sofa, feeling particularly weak. Xiaojuan concernedly asked him what had happened. He told her the news that Lao Wang had died. After hearing this, she said with a long sigh: “Actually, the sisters and I preached the gospel to him and his wife, but they refused to accept it. Lao Wang wasn’t able to overcome the enticement of money, and so lost his life eventually.”
Hearing what Xiaojuan said, Lianfu fell silent. Later, she found a passage of God’s words for him to read: “People spend their lives chasing after money and fame; they clutch at these straws, thinking they are their only means of support, as if by having them they could live on, exempt from death. But only when they are about to die do they realize how distant these things are from them, how weak they are in the face of death, how easily they shatter, how lonely and helpless they are, with nowhere to turn. They realize that life cannot be bought with money or fame, that no matter how wealthy a person may be, no matter how lofty their position, all are equally poor and insignificant in the face of death. They realize that money cannot buy life, that fame cannot erase death, that neither money nor fame can lengthen a person’s life by a single minute, a single second.”
After reading God’s words, Lianfu said with genuine emotion: “What God’s words say is right. I always thought that money could buy everything and secure my livelihood. But in actuality, it can’t be exchanged for health, much less life. Over these years, I have suffered from illnesses for the sake of making money. Although I have spent a lot of money on treating the illnesses, the after effects still remain. And Lao Wang—he earned money half a lifetime, but eventually, he got lung cancer and passed away. He sold his life for money. No matter how much money he had, what use was it? It couldn’t lengthen his life by a day.”
His wife said: “Yes, in the past, we always thought only if we had money would we be looked up to by others and live with dignity. Now, I finally feel that all these things are empty. Many stars and wealthy people live brilliant lives; however, when death comes upon them, they are also full of fear and helplessness. Money isn’t able to bring peace and joy to us. God is the Creator. Only by coming into the presence of God can we achieve true happiness.” Lianfu nodded in agreement.
Finding a New Life Direction
In the following days, Lianfu used his spare time to attend meetings and read God’s words with Xiaojuan and the brothers and sisters. He felt a feeling of liberation that he had never felt before.
One evening, when Xiaojuan went out to buy food, Lianfu sat alone on the sofa and read this passage of God’s words: “If one has a positive attitude toward God’s sovereignty over human fate, then when one looks back upon one’s journey, when one truly comes to grips with God’s sovereignty, one will more earnestly desire to submit to everything that God has arranged, will have more determination and confidence to let God orchestrate one’s fate and to stop rebelling against God. For one sees that when one does not comprehend fate, when one does not understand God’s sovereignty, when one gropes their way forward willfully, staggering and tottering through the fog, the journey is too difficult, too heartbreaking. So when people recognize God’s sovereignty over human fate, the clever ones choose to know it and accept it, to bid farewell to the painful days when they tried to build a good life with their own two hands, and to stop struggling against fate and pursuing their so-called ‘life goals’ in their own way. When one does not have God, when one cannot see Him, when one cannot clearly recognize God’s sovereignty, every day is meaningless, worthless, miserable. Wherever one is, whatever one’s job is, one’s means of living and the pursuit of one’s goals bring one nothing but endless heartbreak and suffering without relief, such that one cannot bear to look back on one’s past. Only when one accepts the Creator’s sovereignty, submits to His orchestrations and arrangements, and seeks true human life will one gradually begin to break free from all heartbreak and suffering, and to be rid of all the emptiness of life.”
While trying to figure out God’s words, Lianfu began to think about the road he had taken all those years. Directed by the wrong outlook on life of “Money is first,” he thought that only by having money could he live a happy life and be held in high esteem by others. But he’d never imagined that what he’d get in return was heartbreak and pain. He didn’t get even a bit of happiness. Through reading God’s words, he finally understood: All he should do is submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements, entrust the latter part of his life to God, and live for God. This was the correct direction he should seek in life.
The sun was about to go down. The evening sun shone on his face through the window and his gaunt face was filled with happiness.
The End.
He Found a Happy Life (I)
