The sky ain’t falling

I was talking to a couple of friends of mine the other day and they both appeared to be in a foul mood and were complaining about various matters which were enumerated in detail for some time. There were concerns about the economy, illegal immigration, politics, race relations, personal finance, family, and most of all careers. One of them told me he had “real” problems and issues at work. Well poor baby; poo poopy doo! Please excuse me if I sound harsh, but if you don’t have some problems and issues at work you don’t have a real job. Jeez the sky is not falling guys. I felt pretty good before I started talking to these guys, but afterwards I felt like hanging myself.

I have traveled the world more than most and have seen real poverty and I have seen misery. I saw a poor soul in India who was dressed literally in rags, was filthy dirty and was begging on the street. He had leprosy and was missing fingers and parts of his face. I was told that people in his situation live on as little as one penny a day. I will never forget the haunting piercing look in his eyes as he held out his cup with nubs, (where he once had fingers), and begged for money. Indeed occasionally I still dream about this poor soul.

As bad as that was, perhaps the most memorable thing that I have seen in that regard was in Mexico City. It was late at night around midnight and my wife and I were walking down the streets. A tiny little girl came up to us and she was all alone on the bustling streets. She was just a child and could not have been over four or five years old. Mexico City is located in high elevation and it is very cold, especially at night and she was physically shivering and shaking. This poor little child had no coat and she had no shoes and newspapers were wrapped around her feet; she was dressed in rags. As with the leper, her eyes told her story; hers were big, brown, and beautiful, but there was a haunting look in them that made me ponder what misery she might have already seen in her short life. She looked up at me and gestured towards her stomach and then mouth and held out her hand for money. She was desperately hungry and cold.

Folks if you ever wondered why people try to enter our country illegally and risk their very lives to come this country, go somewhere like this and see first-hand how they have to struggle just to survive day in and day out. I do not have an answer to the dilemma that we face, but I do understand the desperation and longing for a better life. I do not agree with illegal immigration, but honestly if I were in a similar situation, I would do whatever it took to provide for my wife and boys, just as many of them do.

We have plenty to eat, pure water to drink, and refrigerators to keep it cool. We have plenty of clothes to wear and shoes and socks for our feet. We have air conditioning to keep us cool and heaters to keep us warm. We have cars to get us where we want to go and can hop on a plane if we want to get there faster. We have televisions and games to entertain us and on and on and on and on. The next time we decide to gripe about things, we must remember not to talk with our mouths full

Appreciate what you have and forget about what you don’t have. God has richly blessed Americans. Our lives are not perfect and none of us will ever attain that status until Jesus establishes His new kingdom. Until then though, we should be thankful and appreciate who we are, what we have, and especially where we live. We live in America the beautiful, the land that God shed His grace and light on, the land of the brave and the land of the free

If you agree with this, then why not bow your head and thank God almighty for blessing you in such a mighty way as to allow you to live in this great country in spite of her few issues and problems And just maybe we should ask God to give us a full appreciation of just how fortunate we are in comparison to the billions of people around the world who have a legitimate case to make about the deplorable condition that they might find themselves in regarding their personal situation and country. Best of all we are free to worship our Lord and Savior who ensures we will never thirst or hunger If you prayed that prayer, I hope you ended it by thanking God for all that He has done for you and your family.

John 6:35
And Jesus said to them, “I am
the bread of life. He who comes to
Me shall never hunger, and he who
believes in Me shall never thirst.”