This morning I woke up.
I was healthy.
I was in a bed.
I had a roof over my head.
I had new, clean clothes to change into.
I had food to eat.
I’m pretty lucky.
But I know I take these things for granted; I know everyone in North America takes these things for granted without even thinking what it would be like if we didn’t have all these things. We always want more, more, more. It’s never enough. We are spoiled and self-centred; this is why I think we are some of the poorest countries in the whole world.
My Dad is a part-time missionary in Cuba (check out his blog here). We usually go there every six months. It’s an amazing experience ; I have met some incredible people who love Jesus with their whole heart and they never fail to teach me something while I spend time with them. Cuba is so different from Canada. Most Cubans have basically nothing, not even food to get by on, no cars, no big homes, no cell phones, no internet, nothing. But every time I go down I am blown away…
They are the happiest people I have ever met.
This year I also had the opportunity to go to Haiti to an orphanage called Child Hope. I met the most amazing, loving, kind and godly kids; they all have been through so much, much more than any kids their age should ever have to go through, and even though any average person would just give up an have no hope they keep going.
They love Jesus so much that it just radiates through everything
that they are and everything that they do.
So why don’t we live like that?
Why are we so wrapped up in silly things
like
when the restaurant messes up our order?
or
when we don’t get the christmas present we wanted?
or
when we don’t have enough money to buy the new iPhone?
Why do we feel entitled to all this stuff?
The only thing we deserve is death and God was gracious enough to take that away from us and then he went even further to bless us with everything we do have; a house, steady income, food, water, clothes.
There are people living on less than two dollars every day and we have the nerve to complain about our internet crashing or our TV show being cancelled?
There is something seriously wrong with that.
I’m not saying we have to be perfect; I am guilty of doing this too. All I’m saying is we need to change our attitude. We need to take the focus off of ourselves and put our focus on God and other people. We need to start living like Cubans and Haitians do. We need to live by faith in God and praise God in every circumstance. We need to start doing something rather than sitting around worrying about who will win the next season of American Idol.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. ~James 1:27~
Tatiana Blackburn 