Where's Humanity At?

I sit here.  Perplexed.  Amazed.  By the injustices that surround me.  Is there a reason to live?  A reason to strive?  So many things make me think "no."  But that stems from the pain that I feel in a very personal sense.  But again I think.  I think again of the pain that's felt by so many others that is so much deeper than the pain I feel.  I think I know pain, but I don't know it the way others do.  The pain of losing a child.  (I've never had a child).  The pain of going without.  (I've never been without).  The pain and sacrifice of fighting for my nation (I've never done this.)   The pain of losing a loved one.  (This is something I have not felt).  So again I think...I have felt a lot of pain, but it's mostly physical.  This is true.  But I know I have a greater reason to live because I have not even felt the greatest pain that there is to feel.  Sure, I've felt my share of physical pains and sufferings, of which I will not share in this blog.  But honestly, in comparison to what others have felt and experienced, I have nothing to share as far as pain goes.  I have not much to share except the pain that I have felt through the experience of others. Through reading the news.  Through talking to others from other countries.  Through talking to others who have lost sons and daughters, husbands and wives.  What do I have to bring to the table?

 I've been on mission trips.  I've seen how people live in third world countries.  People eating from trash cans.  People living without clean water.  People living without being able to feed themselves and their children.  But then I leave.  It's a temporary experience.  I go back to my cozy home.  It's 20 degrees F outside and I'm in a cozy home of 70 F degrees.   I have a fireplace, a couch, a wardrobe, a toothbrush, and the resources to buy so much more than I need.  Do I really know what pain is?  I'm sorry if this seems too front, but I've never been raped, my home hasn't been burned down for being a Christian, nobody has told me that I can't go out into public with jeans on.  I'm basically free to do as I wish.  These are not freedoms others possess.  What do I have to complain about?  But yet I find reasons to complain. I have no reason.  I have been given so many freedoms and yet I do nothing with them.  What is wrong with me?  How could I not do something with my freedoms?  I have the gift of literacy and education and political freedom, and yet I sit on it like a frog on a stool.  WHY?  Because it's so damn comfortable.  I don't want to move.  Why do something if it doesn't benefit me?  It's selfishness.  I could spend my life like this.  Like so many others.  But honestly, I've done the math.  If I live 90 years (which is generous), I will live 32, 850 days.  Every day that passes, I waste on my own pleasures and desires.  What do I do with my free time? I spend it on useless entertainment.  What if I spent this extra time on helping others?  How could I change the world?  I've determined in my mind that this is something I must do.  I have to.  What other purpose on the world do I have except to serve others?