A Challenge

I nearly titled this post "the challenge," but considering how numerous challenges are posed claiming to be "the" challenge, I refrained from adding to the clamor.

During the first post, the observation was made that difficulties and troubles present themselves in many mediums, and some are absolutely more terrible than others--Haiti being the prime example of late. In a Bible class last Wednesday night, a tangent arose, addressing the topic of hardship, and as such, Haiti came up. Two more persons had been recently rescued as of that time, this after 14 days being trapped in rubble. Fourteen days amidst dust, heat, crumbled sections of what was a house or other structure. The average American mind has issues wrapping itself around that experience. The thought of two weeks of trapped, minute-to-minute existence is in a frame of reference residing in a gallery across the sea. "How could a person survive that?" is the obvious question from our centrally cooled-and-heated, internet-and-cable equipped apartments (not to mention the "expected" necessities of electricity and cold and hot running water). To the Haitian that was rescued, the experience was indubitably terrifying and excruciatingly exhausting, but nonetheless, it was less so for him than it would have been for any of us. This is not to diminish his trial, but to illustrate that there is a continuum of terrible experiences, and there is a sense of relativity to it, depending on where one starts along the grade.

All that to say, a challenge for us, in our predominately cushy culture, is to constantly increase awareness for all the blessings we are provided with, and to really examine what it is about which we are on the verge of complaining or affecting a martyr-like tone as someone asks us how our day is going.

I am guilty of this, remarking that, "Oh, I'm hanging in there" or something equally survivor-esque. What exactly am I "hanging in there" with? Working in an air-conditioned office for eight or nine hours a day, and commuting an hour each way? Sounds pretty atrocious, no? Oh, it doesn't? Exactly.

So in addition to being a light, I want to increase my perspective, my understanding of how blessed I really am, so I can be truly grateful and in turn, share what I have and bless others.