Why Me?

So I read this blog post this morning, and next thing I know I am submitting an entry to win a trip to Rwanda. This is what I wrote for my submission. I have been telling you that lately I have been totally wrecked by what I am reading – both in the Bible and books – and here is just another sign that the Lord is doing something in me, because I have always been scared to go overseas for something like this. Now I am asking you to vote for me to win this trip – vote often – so I can move forward in the process.

Why me? Why did I get picked as the one to lose my job? Why do we struggle financially? Why has life dealt us the cards it has?

And yet we have more than we need. We have food overflowing our pantry, refrigerator, and freezers. We have more clothing than we can wear. We have more electronics than we should. My Bible study group and I just rid our homes of over 2,000 items. And we could easily do it again.

There are people in this world so much worse off than us, and yet we have the audacity to ask, “why me?”

All over the world are widows with no way to support themselves; children with no food and no access to clean water; young girls forced into prostitution and slavery to “survive.”

And we sit here in our homes that we consider too small, filled with stuff that we think isn’t enough, crying because we don’t have the latest technology in our hands.

Something is wrong with this picture.

And I have had enough. I want people to see that we are not just getting by, but are among the super-wealthy when compared with the world. I want people to see that we have to stop looking at our first-world problems and start helping the people with real problems. We have to start paying attention to what we buy and how it affects other people. We have to start doing something, not just ignoring what is right in front of our faces.

Because we have the power to change the world.

Being from a small rural community, we get by thinking that the tragedies of the world are too far removed from us. We don’t see it daily, so we can pretend it doesn’t exist, or that we couldn’t do anything to change it anyway.

But I want to change that thinking. And going to Rwanda on this trip would be a good place to start. Because when someone you know sees it first hand, you start listening.