Wait! I feel a deeply profound article coming on! Here's a little tale I've woven around an incident involving a man we'll call Rufus..
RUFUS
Rufus could feel death creeping up on him.
His heart pounded painfully as he struggled for breath, and in his final minutes he closed his eyes and looked back over his life.
Born in the slums to a prostitute mother who gave him away at birth, and an unknown Roman soldier father, he grew up constantly getting in trouble, his philosophy was dog eat dog in this world and all that matters is looking after number one, because nobody else will, that's for sure, and he did it all, lying, stealing, mugging, burglary, fraud, violence..
Now he knew his dead body would be thrown into an unmarked grave before the day was out, and that he'd quickly fade from human memory, unremembered and forgotten as if he'd never existed, having never done a single good thing for anybody in his life nor given anybody reason to lament his passing..
The thought of entering that black void of death made him shiver deep in his soul,and he felt a cold clammy fear like he'd never known before.
He opened his eyes, and pulling against the nails in his hands and feet, he turned to the young man on the cross next to him and said with sobbing panicking repentance in his voice "Jesus remember me..."
And Jesus replied "Today you'll be with me in Paradise..."
(Luke 23:41)