Yesterday our water heater sprung a leak. A pretty big leak. Catherine noticed it yesterday, so for all we know it could have been running and running for days...which is sort of a scary thought. Apologies...hard to type with hang nails on BOTH of your ring fingers. >.< Anyway, so after church I ran out and called our water company on the way home. The guy basically said it wasn't his problem and told us to call the landlord...which we did. While at the grocery store, our landlord called me and said he'd be there within the hour. Long story short so I can get to the point, some valve needs replaced and will be fixed on Wednesday. Hurrah!
Anyway, coming to the point of this post. Today at church there were a few eye-opening moments. The ending theme was about being wealthy. My pastor asked the congregation if we considered ourselves wealthy. Thinking to myself...I said no. No I really didn't. Then some things were said and my thinking changed. Perspective. That's what it's about. Really. Again...felt like the smiley face on the wall. To be honest, if you REALLY think about it, we are pretty wealthy. Now that I've left church I consider myself pretty wealthy all things considering. Even if we have to survive without hot water for a few days. We've got it pretty well made. I'm listening to this song right now called "Good to be Alive." The song speaks for itself.
I wanna live like there's no tomorrow
Love like I'm on borrowed time
It's good to be alive.
Holly: Something to think about the next time you drive to work, go to your kitchen, or sit down with your family at dinner:
8% of the world's population owns a car.
1 billion people don't have access to clean water.
800 million people won't eat today. 300 million of those will be children.
In order to provide basic nutrition, water, and resources to those who don't already have them it would cost roughly $20 billion. In the grand scheme of things that doesn't sound like much, but that amount is roughly what Americans spend on ice cream each year.
Talk about counting your blessings. Definitely a smiley-face-in-the-wall moment for me. Our culture is so skewed in terms of perspective: our gotta-have-it-all-right-this-very-second, bigger, better, best, I-have-more-stuff-than-you attitude is just really crappy, bottom line. Even in my barely moved-into apartment I STILL feel like I have too much stuff. And in the grand scheme of things, I do. I know I do, and I try my best to downsize. But over the years, especially in college, I've come to realize just how pointless stuff really is.
Every day I'm trying to thank God for the things I do have, and also thanking God for when people pull through. Like today. I'm trying to be thankful for the things that matter in my life: my friends, my family, my church, people I work with. We just become so attached to our things, our money, that we completely lose sight of what's important. That is such a dangerous cycle. But I find that when I put my focus on God, everything else just falls into place.
Use things, not people. Love people, not things.
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