Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Backstory: "Doomsday Falls on a Tuesday This Year"

First off, of all the 15 story titles you see on the table of contents, this one has to be my favorite.  I can't remember exactly how the title came to me, but I know that I had it in mind for years, long before I ever had any idea what it could possibly be about.  Therefore, finally being able to connect it to a story made me very happy; to have it published was icing on the cake.  Maybe one day some of these other titles that sound so cool in my head will also be attached to stories of their own...

The inspiration from the story itself comes from Mark 13:31-33, which reads, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Be on guard!  Be alert!  You do not know when that time will come."  Down through the years, a number of people have tried--and failed--to predict the date when the end will come.  My first exposure to that came as a young teenager in 1988, when I was in a bookstore with my grandmother and saw a book entitled, "88 Reasons the Lord Will Come Back in 1988."  A year later, I remember seeing one with a very similar cover entitled, "89 Reasons the Lord Will Come Back in 1989."  I'm just guessing reason number 89 was something along the lines of, "Because He didn't do it in 1988."  Every attempt throughout history to predict the exact time has failed.  With that said, I'm guessing it's pretty safe to make plans for 2012, but I digress...

Anyway, we've all heard street preachers who, no matter how great their intentions might be, aren't taken seriously by their impromptu audiences.  In some cases, that may be their own doing, or it may be that they are actually preaching a solid message but get torpedoed by the reputation created by their more outlandish counterparts.  So, I decided to take a well-meaning street preacher (and yes, "Harold Hilltop" has some intentional double-meaning) whose zeal sometimes gets the better of him and put him in a totally unique situation.

Philippians 4:13.--SMS

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