Complaints

Originally posted to Xanga on August 9, 2006

so I've been thinking a lot about our country, and my family, and where I'm going. here I am, sleeping late, goofing off, eating more good food than I need, with shelter over my head, and the coolest gadgets a kid could ever want. I've got an amazing family, and swell friends, and a great church. I'm sitting here at our Mac G5 OSX system, trying to cleanse my mouth from the taste of the M&M cookies my sister made and listening to a Switchfoot CD. We've got central air in our two story Dutch colonial, and I'm wearing clothes that my mom bought me, and my hair's not frizzy because of all the hair care she gives me. I've got a cold, but we always have a medicine cabinet stocked with the meds that relieve the symptoms. AND I have a nurse right there to answer any medical questions I have. I've got friends who email me, or sit with me at meeting, and check with me to see what's going on and how I'm feeling, friends who care about me. I've got two hard working parents who love me to death, and pour themselves out to take care of me, and make sure I'm happy. I've got siblings who actually get along, and who like each other, rather than just love with an obligation. This is the earthly stuff that God's given me.

why me?

it's amazing enough that God created human beings, created me, and rescued them from their selfish and destructive ways, rescued me, and loves them, loves me, but then to bless me with all this?

why me?

there are kids starving out there, while I get fat. there are people who live in cardboard boxes, while I live in a nice neighborhood, a nice house. there are people who walk around half naked, and yet I used to complain that so many of my clothes were second hand. there are people who are sick and dirty, while I take 15 minute showers every morning and have never felt healthier. there are people who have no friends, while I have a crowed social calender. there are people who have abusive parents or no parents at all, while my mom and my dad love each other and work so hard. there are people who have never heard the Word of God, while I have more Bibles than I can count, and go to church twice a week.

why am I blessed so abundantly in these ways?

I could have been born into a poor, broken family in Russia. I could have been an orphan in Sudan. I could be living in a hole in East Guam. I could been born on the streets of Memphis, into a world of drugs and independability.

what's the dealio?

it really puts things in perspective. and yet, the poor will always be among us. and it makes me want to lean on God all the more.

and to think I started this entry with a complaint.