The Hardest Questions and the most Honest Answers

It's been a rough time in my life lately. The past 3 months have been filled with sadness, worry, tears and dissapointment. I've often asked God, "Where are you?", but I see him. I see Him in my friends -who are willing to  pray for me and reach out to me, even in the simplest of ways. They see what I don't ask for. Things like, an umbrella, lotion, food, encouraging cards in my mailbox. I see the way He answers even my simplest prayers like finding out where I put those much needed hairbands. This all may sound trivial, but to me, it shows He cares about the little things in my life as well as the not so little. It teaches me that I need to take one day at a time and pray without ceasing. 

In sociology we were watching clips about poverty. My professor was talking about the fact that we push the statement, "It's their fault for messing up and putting themselves in poverty". I'm very torn on this subject for several reasons. While I agree that I should be independent from government assistance to survive (ie food, housing, clothing) the government has allowed me over others to attend university. I have said that I am poor, but now I feel as if I really can't say it that way anymore. I have opportunities that a lot of people do not have. (i.e. health care, housing, education) I was under the assumption that anyone could make a life for themselves if they went to college and worked their way out of poverty. Here's another catcher though: People make mistakes. I could easily be that person on the street someday. Does that mean as Christians we tell them to work hard and forget about them? And what about the children who have no choice to be poor? Because the truth is that we can sit around and point fingers all we want to, but poverty will still be an issue in this country, and around the world. But what can we do?

How do we speak (Christian) truth without being pushy and arrogant? How do I tell people I love they are making bad decisions without being critical? If we don't agree with someone, why can't we just say that we don't agree instead of arguing about it? I was very inspired by chapel yesterday. I'm not even sure where they found the guy giving his testimony, but I was inspired because he essentially gave up his whole life- his Jewish family, his financial stability, to come learn and share Jesus. He said to be crazy for God! So, I couldn't find the music video for the song, so it's a video done by a church's children's ministry, but we sing it for our kid's program. 

Poverty Meal

This week is Missions week at my school. My roommate and I attended "Poverty meal" instead of going to our usual dinner. Instead of having a choice of several items to choose from, we simply had 1 bowl of porridge. As I'm sitting in the sectioned off area of the cafe I couldn't help but look around. There were students everywhere- many laughing, with huge trays filled with food. That was a new perpective for sure. I get up to the pot and fill up my bowl (which was a little bigger than my fists) with one ladel full. It wasn't so bad. It was grainy, but tasted a lot like potatoes. The more I ate though, the more I was impacted. Sure, one bite is okay, but after awhile it gets pretty boring and it makes your throat sore. What did I do? I got a glass of water. That helped a lot. But it got me really thinking. People eat this same dry mush everyday with no water. Others eat nothing at all. What really aches is that 10 million children go hungry in the US alone and that a child dies every 7 seconds from malnourishment. In an unfair world, it's easy to forget to pray for our brothers and sisters and our children. But let's remember and be thankful for the unlimited supply of nourishment we have within our reach.