Cherishing Progress
As I am matching socks, I’m cherishing progress. It occurs to me that we might not be as grateful as is due. I match 3-4 pair per person wondering how many people are thankful for socks. Some are obsessed with matched socks and only the most perfect will do. How is anyone so focused on such seemingly trivial details, when some people would be grateful for any two, since they don’t have socks? Then, I realize some people would be grateful for feet.
Cherishing Progress
We live in a great country and during a great time. If you are reading this, it is a marvel. Here I sit, with my feet up, warm by the fire, typing on a 2lb laptop computer and in a matter of seconds, it is available for others to read. That is the least of the capacity of the technology. I could create a video or live video chat. Or get directions, instantly communicate with virtually millions of people, and create many types of documents and presentations. I can play games, take pictures, design and create various art.
I use it to play music while I stretch and do my balance exercises. Reaching my hands to the ceiling worshiping and deep breathing. While reciting Biblical affirmations of strength, healing and purpose, I alternate stretches and hold warrior power poses. This is possible because of the technology. The lasting effects of child sexual abuse and trafficking are transformed from trauma to testimony. People around the world have been similarly traumatized, but do not have the same resources. In generations past, the resources didn’t exist. Music was only available if a skilled person was there to perform.
The Word of God hasn’t always been available to people either. It is still banned in some places. Many religious and non-religious cultures either discount or outright forbid the reading of the Bible. There is life in the Word and power in the Word. He sent His Word and healed us from all of our infirmities. What a hope!
So Grateful
We can walk downstairs and get a glass of clean water. I don’t have to leave the house. I don’t have to get it from the stream or worse, a stagnant pool full of festering diseases. What a privilege. I’m overwhelmed. How many generations of people lived with dirty water? So many still do today. I have been given this tremendous gift.
The refrigerator has all of the ingredients I need to make dinner. No hunting. Or gathering. No searching. Or skinning and dressing a beast. Wow, a hot meal in less than an hour. I cook in clean pans and eat from clean dishes. I turn a knob to provide fire for cooking. We don’t have to waste anything. We can store it for later and not worry about animals getting into it or germs contaminating it.
I live with a painful body, but I have so many modern conveniences to ease the pain. Most of the time, I can find relatively comfortable positions on my comfy couch or my cushy bed. Even though I am going through a time of illness, easy to take medicines, warm tea, hot baths, cool compresses and yoga pants make it all so much easier. I often think of what it would be like to be in this condition in the kind of abject poverty of central Africa or eastern China. There are few places so desolate in the US. I can put a coat and shoes on to go for a walk. I change into cooler clothes when I get overheated. Some people simply cannot make simple changes to increase their comfort. I am blessed with options.
Perspective Matters
Anyone can see that our world is full of chaos. Wars and rumors of wars are all around. Threats to safety, threats to our economy, threats to our liberty, and all legal and illegal forms of theft and violence abound. No one is totally safe. But for those of us who have the hope of a better eternity, perspective is the key to maintaining that hope. The hope of a better tomorrow is all some people have. Some exist without even that.
It is with an extremely grateful heart that I write today. I hope and pray that you are cherishing progress of our time and using it to share the hope of eternity without pain. There is Good News. Have you heard it?