It coud be worse

As I was running errands this afternoon, I got a text from someone very close to me. She told me to pray for her. This didn't sit right with me. I texted her back asking what was going on. She said she was just let go from her job. My heart sank. This person has a child and bills to pay. I know in these tough economic times it's hard to find a job. What will she do? What could I tell her to console her?

Later on I attended the memorial service of the Samoan soldier that drowned earlier this week. It was such a sad scene. The man has five children. The oldest was barely over ten. These children will not have a father to provide for them, to protect them, to teach them. The preacher's message was from Ecclesiastes about time. How there's a time for everything. A time to be born and a time to die. A time for war and a time for peace. A time to gather and a time to disperse. He encouraged us to make good use of our time. We only have a finite amount of time allotted us on this earth. Make the most of it. We are not promised tomorrow. There's a Samoan saying, "e fa'i le moto e fa'i fo'i le matua." The young are taken as well as the elderly. Make the most out of your life.

When I saw my friend who had been layed off later that night, I asked her how she was doing. I could see the tension in her face as she explained that she had been job hunting all day. I sat there for a while not knowing what to say. Then I told her, "it could be worse." She looked at me and asked what did I mean. I told her I had just come from the memorial service. I said she will eventually find another job. But those kids have no father for the rest of their lives. When I am in difficult moments of my life, I have learned to count my blessings. It's often difficult to count your blessings when you're in a deep valley of your life. But we have to know that God has blessed us so abundantly. Learning to thank God IN SPITE of our circumstances is a HUGE part of Christian maturity.