Counting my Blessings

Thanksgiving...
The preface to Christmas?
A day of total & complete gluttony?
Food, football, and family?

Thanksgiving is meant to be so much more. It is a day devoted to recognizing the blessings God has poured out on you. By recognizing blessings I mean more than just praying "God, thank you for this chance to spend time with family & friends and thank you for everything you have given us. Bless this wonderful food to the nourishment of our bodies. Amen" before digging into the extravegant feast laid out before you. We are so so blessed with luxuries beyond what we could ever need, and we hardly ever take the time to recognize it.

God has given me so much that I never appreciate until I have to live without it, things like:
a roof over my head to protect me from the sun & wind & rain, much more than a single pair of clothes, shoes, a toothbrush, clean & drinkable water, plumbing, electricity, easy access to medication and medical care, a bed, soap, education, Christian parents who love me, an electric stove, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine & dryer, heat & air conditioning, nutritious food, a sense of safety & protection, a car, a computer & internet access, grocery stores, a fair government, freedom. I could go on and on.

Read through that list again, slowly this time, and think about what your life would be like without each of those things. Now think of the people who live every day without those things. The woman living in Afghanistan who is oppressed & devalued by the Muslim religion and men all around her. The people of Haiti living in filth surrounded by death & disease with no hope of a better tomorrow. The innocent young woman trapped in the sex-trafficing business with no way out. The orphan who has no concept of love and family. The heartbroken widow in India who is seen as an outcast of society because she no longer has a husband. The people who lie sick & dying of preventable & treatable illnesses hundreds of miles from any kind of medical care. The child soldiers in Uganda who are trained to fight & forced to kill after they are kidnapped from their families. The malnourished children of Africa who search for scraps of food among the garbage. The homeless, poor, rape victims, enslaved, tourtured, lost, searching, hopeless, depressed, suicidal, lonely, neglected, addicted.

Counting my blessings makes my heart ache for those who so desperately need the very things I take for granted. So this thanksgiving as you thank God for all the blessings you have - big & small, luxuries & needs, overlooked & unappreciated - allow your mind to spend some time dwelling on those in your city and around the world that are in need. Pray for their hearts, their salvation, and their needs. And then go a step further and do something about it.

A Call to Get Uncomfortable

Throughout this semester I have been reading through the book Radical by David Platt slowly but surely. It has challenged me to change the way I live, to live outside my comfort zone. It would be redundant to say that in some ways this is an uncomfortable idea to me, but as I read Platt's words and reflect on scripture there is something within me that yearns to fulfill this challenge, some part of me that desires that uncomfortable living. Kinda weird, I know. So the past few weeks I have been trying to work out all of this that is floating around in my mind & my heart. Then this morning as I'm driving I hear a song come on the radio. It seems like a good song, but unfortunately I park my car and have to get out to go to class before the song is over. So I store away a couple lines of the lyrics in my head and resolve to look the song up on the internet during my lunch break. These are the lyrics I found when I looked up the song, and they touched my heart in a powerful way.

In my own little world it hardly ever rains.
I've never gone hungry, always felt safe.
I got some money in my pockey, shoes on my feet in my own little world
Population: me.
I try to stay awake during Sunday morning church.
I throw a twenty in the plate, but I never give till it hurts.
And I turn off the news when I don't like what I see.
It's easy to do when it's population: me.

What if there's a bigger picture? What if I'm missing out?
What if there's a greater purpose I could be living right now outside my own little word?

Stopped at a red light, looked out my window.
I saw a cardboard sign
Said "Help this homeless widow",
And just above that sign was the face of a human.
I thought to myself, "God, what have I been doing?"
So I rolled down the window and I looked her in the eye.
Oh, how many times have I just passed her by?
I gave her some money then drove on through,
And my own little world reached population: two.

Father, break my heart for what breaks yours.
Give me open hands and open doors.
Put your light in my eyes, and let me see
That my own little world is not about me.

What if there's a bigger picture? What if I'm missing out?
What if there's a greater purpose I could be living right now?
I don't wanna miss what matters. I wanna be reaching out.
Show me the greater purpose so I can start living right now outside my own little world.

~My Own Little World by Matthew West

Let these words stink in even though it will be very uncomfortable. It is when our hearts are penetrated with the need of others and the compassion of Christ that we are moved to drastic action.