Want what you have until...

Something has been on my mind for the past week so I wanted to share it with all of you.

Maybe I'm only noticing this thing now because I had to work through it myself before I could realize it was an issue. But in noticing it, it has caused tears to flow.  You might be wondering what I am talking about. Well, here it is. 

In the past few days and weeks, I have talked with people who don't realize how good they have it.  They have any material possessions that they ask for, a car, parents who love them and would do ANYTHING for them, a college education that their parents are paying for (or helping to pay for). You name it, they probably have it.

But they don't notice.

They just want more.

I look at these people who are just so ungrateful for what they have. And they complain that their parents are overbearing because they (the parents) ask where their child is or where they are going. It brings tears to my eyes because they don't realize just how lucky they are to have parents that actually care and who will miss them.  Even those people who are helped through college by their parents. It's small trivial things we don't notice.

Here is an exception. He is actually someONE very important.  And His name is Jesus.  When it comes to our Christian faith, the ONLY thing we should want more of what we don't have is to be closer to him.  Have a hunger for Him every single second of every minute, of every hour, of every day of your life. That is the only thing that we should want that we don't have.

On a more somber note, here is an issue that is not so trivial, yet we still don't notice, or don't take the time to notice it.  Do you know how many children don't have a family or parents to call their own? No one is there to care about them. Many are abused, abandoned, homeless. And we sit in our nice houses with all of our fancy gadgets and equipment that isn't necessary for life doing NOTHING to help- complaining about the material things we don't have.

Children in Maltreatment Reports by State, 2002
(n = 318,838)

According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, there were 643,067 sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons nationwide on a single night in January 2009.  SO WHY ARE WE DOING NOTHING?! 

Please, can someone tell me why we're all okay with doing nothing? Why aren't we standing up for injustices?!

You can call me crazy or radical, I don't really care. At least I'm not afraid to speak what's on my mind and look for new ways to see things.  I am standing up. What are you going to do?

So here's a challenge.

My challenge for you, for all of us, is to look for something wrong. And fight for it! Don't just sit by and let people walk all over you for your convictions, don't sit there and not see past the end of your nose. Stand up. and do SOMETHING! Big things can come of seemingly nothing.