the end of the world

Earlier today I gave my brother a ride to some appointment in downtown. He needed to go meet with somebody to discuss getting some extra financial aid to buy art supplies or something. I don't really know, I was just giving him a ride.

I dropped him off and parked further down the road. No sense in driving all the way home if I was going to have to go pick him up in an hour or half an hour. I stole some change from the cup holder and paid the parking meter. Thirty eight minutes for eighty cents.

I decided I would walk around the streets of the city for a bit, take in the scenery. I walked around the block to a Dunkin Donuts. I bought a large caramel iced coffee. It was pretty good.

As a left, I was approached by a man. He was not quite elderly, but past middle-aged. His hair was gray and wispy. Strapped over him, was a sign. On the front it had a picture of two roads intersecting in the shape of a cross, consumed by flame. In big letters, white as innocence, it read "Heaven or Hell?"

He tried to hand me a pamphlet. "No thanks." I took a sip of my iced coffee and kept strolling, my flip-flops slapping the concrete with every step.

"You can never be too certain you know!"

I turned around, but kept walking away from him. "I'm pretty sure on this one, thanks."

"So you think."

I'll admit, my curiosity was sparked. How could he believe that the world was coming to an end? Especially if you could never be too certain. I decided to ask.

"Are you so certain that the world will end, that you are willing to stand on the corner wearing a sign handing out pamphlets?"

"Well, I'm not," he said with a grin, "but if the world does end, and we are judged before God, I am glad to have repented."

"And if I have not sinned?"

"Well then, you have nothing to worry about, but nobody lives a pure life."

I smiled, and walked away.