So Thankful...

So I was reading Mesha's post about our mentality in America toward our food, which really applies to everything. It's just fact that our environment forms our way of thinking whether we want it to or not. My husband works in a doctors office and he is always commenting on how people expect "fast food" health care. People will complain if they have to wait 15 minutes for an x-ray because they have a hair appointment. ITS YOUR HEALTHCARE PEOPLE NOT MICKEY D'S. We are surrounded by a faced-paced, need it now, 15 min's or its free society. Not only that but we live in an abundance. Our Recession is other countries fortunes, truly it is! I'm not belittling the crunch people are feeling, it's been hard for everyone. When a spouse loses a job, or your pay is cut, or the savings account is dry, things become difficult. But are we thankful for what we DO have?

Almost exactly a year ago I spent two weeks in South Africa ministering to orphans, children with AIDS, and in their public schools. It was a wonderful experience that has cursed me for life. I don't see a half-full plate being thrown away the same.Sometimes our abundance of food disgusts me. Just today I was having lunch at Jason's Deli with my husband and the buss-boy came and took my plate. I had a couple bites of bread left and that was it. He threw it in this portable trash-can and my imagination started painting a picture of what the inside of that trash can looked like. Salad greens, half-sandwiches, parts of cookies, un-finished soup, the crust the spoiled child refuses to eat, ect. Then I imagined those beautiful dark faces I haven't been able to forget, rummaging through the trash.

At one feed we did about 100 little kids came scammering out of their tin box 'homes' to get in line for their meal. We partnered with a group that goes to this area twice and week and feeds them squashed pumpkin,rice, and gourd. We were there to serve but I was so broken because I knew back home I wouldn't even think about eating what I was serving to these starving kids. For some of them, it was the one meal out of two they would get for the ENTIRE WEEK. 

How hungry am I? Are we "starving" like we say?

WE ARE BLESSED! PERIOD! How thankful are we that our needs are meet? Even if someday we don't know where our next meal is coming from will we have faith to trust that God is our provider? I try to live by a motto: "Don't pray for something you aren't willing to be an answer too". Pray for the hungry, the sick, the naked, the poor. Then get off your knees, and let God use you to meet that need.

AMEN