Never Will I Know

Every morning as we leave our house, we drive around the corner to see the same line of shanty homes with children walking to school, some wearing tattered shoes and some bearing the heat of the asphalt with their young calloused feet. Women stand in front of their homes hanging up the family's clothes and sweeping their front yard with large palm leaves. Men walk miles and miles on the side of the road, pulling a wooden crate filled with scraps from a junkyard that could be used for his family's home. I watch the sun beat on their backs as they determinedly walk uphill to the townships where they live. Young girls strap their baby siblings around their backs with cloth or towel as they walk along the dirt roads balancing a week's worth of groceries upon their head. Every morning on our way to campus, I see a glimpse of their everyday lives. Dressed with fresh clean clothes, a different pair of shoes than the ones I wore the day before, after a shower and full breakfast..I peer out my window and know that I will never know what it is like to suffer the way they suffer. I will never be in their shoes, and I will never understand. Even if I spent a week, a month, or a year in a township living the lifestyle they live...I will never know. The other day, it was pouring rain and as we drove back home with our clothes mildly damp and discussing the minor accident of leaving our bedroom windows open during such weather, I couldn't help but notice the four wooden walls of a house shifting its place in the mud with the plastic tarp roof collapsing from the pressure of the wind and rain. Water leaked through the cracks of the walls and that one room, where they cook, eat, and sleep was flooded. Never...will I know.

I am grateful to be living amongst the reality of burdened life in which I cannot avoid every time I step outside. As I pass by the scenes of their everyday lives, the Lord grows within me a thankful heart for that which He has provided me with. I never want to grow comfortable to the things that I have. I never want to think for a moment that I deserve them, nor take for granted the simplest blessings He's given me. It amazes me how those who have little are grateful for much. Yet those who have much, are often grateful for so little. I pray that God will never let me grow numb to the sufferings of this world and I ask in a spirit of humility that He will never let me become too comfortable with my life. May I always recognize each blessing He has provided and worship with gladness and thanksgiving. For the air I breathe, the food I eat, the health of my body, the family I have, the shelter He gives, the love He bestows, the creation He surrounds me with..for the promise of His of Word, for the beauty of the Gospel, for His unfailing grace and perfect peace...I am grateful.