The Day of - NaNoPrep Assignments

Plot: Complications

1. Solomon could get into trouble at the Canadian border, due to his untempered speaking, (aka vocal outbursts.)

2. Solomon could get into trouble with Betty Draper. She could seduce him in a weak moment, getting her pregnant, and putting his entire quest in jeopardy.

3. Jerry Jangles could push Solomon over the edge causing him to go to jail for assault, proving Jerry's premise, that "Christians are nothing but phonies."

4. J.C. Westerling advises Solomon to not even attempt his quest right now, since his mouth (aka swearwords) could get him into trouble with the authorities along the way. "Grow up for 2-3 years. Ask the Lord to 'put a guard on your lips,' (Psalm 141:3, KJV) then go on your quest when you're less offensive, outwardly," Westerling urges.

5. Solomon could lash out at his friend T.J. Golden, saying, "You think you're so smart! You think you know everything! Well, I know stuff, too. Buzz Off!"

6. Ultimately, Solomon starts his quest, half-cocked. His supply list is only half-filled. His map is out-of-date. He's ill after 30 days in a Canadian jail for giving a first responder "the finger." He decides to head out for the Nunavut archipelago. He nearly freezes at the first place he camps for the night until a stranger (angel-in-disguise) shows him how to build a shelter in the snow. The next day Solomon is nearly mauled to death by a bear (polar or grizzly,) but the stranger shows up, again, standing in between Solomon, and his sure demise. (Daniel 6:21-22, KJV)

7. Solomon spends six months in The North, without human contact (so, he's lonely,) without sufficient food (so, he's malnourished,) barely eking out shelter (so, he stays on the edge of complete hypothermia,) and he becomes more and more hopeless and depressed, thinking, "Even God has given up on me." However, Solomon's many problems could be used by the Lord to transform Solomon into the Christian he has always wanted to be, removing his foul mouth, making him wise, and convicting him of his past life in order for him to reject and forsake that past life to fully embrace the true life in Christ (John 14:6, KJV,) living a new life "under the shadow of His Wings." (Psalm 91:1-4, KJV)

8. At a critical point in the story when Solomon is about to die, and all seems lost an Inuit hunter finds him in that state of being "barely alive." The hunter wraps up Solomon in two to three layers of skins, lays him gently on his dogsled, and drives his team of huskies as hard as he can the hundred miles back to his village, where he tries for an hour or two to get a signal strong enough to call for a medevac helicopter, which takes him to the US-Canadian border, handing him off to American first responders, who fly him directly to Erlanger Hospital in his college hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Three months go by as his recovery in the hospital changes to recovery at home. "Now, what?" he cries out to the Lord.

9. A story with no happy ending, "The Day of" is still unknown, and finally, Solomon laments, "I've wasted my life." (II Corinthians 12:7-10, KJV)

10. Resigned to failure, Solomon decides to visit the Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, Finland, as a consolation prize. Little does he know, "This is where your answers lie, my Son," the Lord Jesus tells him in an epiphany. "Look for 'The Day of,' during your stay there."

by Jay O'Toole
on October 20th, 2022