The other morning I reached over to unplug my phone, which was laying on the shelf of the second floor. The second floor is where my wife and I sleep and it is open to the floor below. So, I am standing on the stairs as I grab the phone, likely late to wherever I was headed. I lightly grasped the phone and as I slid it off the shelf I realized it was still plugged in. The plug in held it just well enough that it slipped out of my hand, but the phone had momentum from my pulling and slid off the shelf and all the way to the tile floor – 10 feet below. Yep, screen was shattered.
Now I do not know about you, but I am way dependent upon my phone. It has way too much information that I need often, particularly contact info for a variety of people. And, even though I am not twenty something, I text like I am. We were in a rural area and access to a replacement phone was not simple. I contemplated ordering a replacement screen, but probably above my technical abilities and the phone was older and not functioning well anyway. So, I pulled out an old flip phone, or as one friend called it “a 1920’s model flip phone.” If you texted me during the 3 weeks I was carrying the flip phone, you did not get a text reply. I simply had all calls forwarded to the flip and would check the other one nightly for texts. I could read who sent it but opening the text was difficult and responding almost impossible. So, text messages got a call reply. Actually much better, I enjoyed talking to folks, but it does take more time.
Toward the end of this period of difficulty, I write with tongue in check, I was complaining. My son looks at me and says, “first world problem.” Now I have been to India 3 times on mission trips. We started a not for profit corporation that supports the school in the picture above which is located in a slum in India, so I have seen 3rd world. Every time I return from India for a while after I get back for some reason I am amazed to open my refrigerator and find fresh milk. I am not sure why milk in a refrigerator is the one sure object that signifys I am home, but it does for me. So, I am well aware of the difference in 3rd world problems.
I notice that most of the things that frustrate me are “1st world problems”. My life is great. I have a comfortable bed to sleep in. I have milk in the refrigerator and if not I can have a new gallon in 15 minutes and did not have to chase down a cow or a goat and milk it. I have access to over the counter medicine to resolve most all my sniffly problems. I can sleep in my comfortable bed with little or no fear of danger during the night. I have air conditioning in the summer and central heat in winter. I have not built a fire to cook on or heat over except on vacation – ever. My problems are 1st world problems. And yet I am not thankful.
Let me encourage you as you go about enjoying Thanksgiving with your family – judge your problems. Are they 1st world problems such as stuck in traffic in an air conditioned car listening to satellite radio, or are they real problems like 60% of the children in the Udayan Polly slum area of New Town Kolkata, India who are not receiving any education.
Color me Thankful,
mike
If you are interested, you can get involved in making a difference in the world and solving some 3rd world problems through the Staurolite Foundation. The Staurolite Foundation exists to bring the light of the world to assist individuals and communities through services and funding with their life sustaining and eternal needs sharing the Light of the world and making a difference in the world one person at a time. All donations to the Staurolite Foundation go to the projects, there are no paid staff. http://www.staurolitefoundation.com/
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. – Philippians 2:3-4 NLT
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. – Ephesians 2:10 NLT
For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. – Philippians 2:13 NLT
Cowboy Logic: Everybody wants to change the world, but nobody wants to change themselves.
Cowboy Logic: “It’s mighty hard to do what your neighbors ain’t doin’.”