The Journey, Part 8

Man, I am tired.

I had a discussion with a friend today about how spoiled we are.
I attend Lipscomb University. A place where they find it no big deal to drop $300 on chairs in Arlo's...a piece. Tuition is through the roof, and is getting higher. The buildings are new, the computers are new, we have a Blue Coast, Chik-fil-A, Starbucks, and while it snowed, they bought PURPLE salt to cover the ground we walked on. Not just the normal salt. Purple. Because that is a school color.
I know that if I sat and listed all the ways I am spoiled as an American it would be not only boring, but endless. Besides, my wrists would start hurting and that's just obnoxious. You already know what they are, anyway.

I visited some friends last week and went to a meeting for a trip I am going on. The leader of the trip got to talking about the particular building we were meeting in. How new it was, how nice it was, and how blessed they were to have it. And as ashamed as I am to say it, all I could think about was how every building at Lipscomb is this way, no big deal. I was later appalled by my behavior. Yes, that may be the case, but how grateful am I for it?
I go to school on one of the nicest campuses I know of, and yet my friends and I will sit and complain about parking. Or how the food isn't quite like we want when we have SO MANY options to pick from! And yet my dear friends rejoiced at the marvelous and wonderful building God had blessed them with, a lesson I quickly need to learn. I am embarrassed to even confess my sin of arrogance in this case.

I guess it would be silly to say stop and think about how blessed you are. Not silly in the idea, but silly to express that to people who hear it all the time from churches. I don't think I really do unless an instance like this happens. It is a little cliche, although incredibly true, to relate our wealth with the wealth of other countries, but I think it is more beneficial to relate my wealth, your wealth, with people that are all around me. There are people ten minutes down the road living on $2 a day. That means 3 meals a day for them and most likely other little mouths to feed. My "Little" gave me a porcelain doll from the Dollar Store for Christmas, something she probably cherished when it was gifted to her, because it was most likely the nicest thing she had ever owned. And she felt that she had to give me something incredible in order for me to be happy. Is that the message I as a mentor, as an American, as a child of God am sending off? That in order to be on my level, on our level, people have to raise to a ridiculous and impossible height?

I can't ignore the cries of those who would die to have even half of what I do. I am so spoiled and blessed beyond anything I deserve


I found God today in that: He has spoiled me as His child so I in turn can spoil others.