First world problems...

So, I'm thinking I might expand a little on what this blog gets for content. I had originally been playing off the musical aspects of notes and rearrangement and only planned to write about songs that caused me to think, or reflect, in some way of significance (well, at least significant to me.) However, I'm trying to be a multifaceted individual in my life and I asked myself why I'd want to be so limiting in expressing what moves me and gives me pause in this life? So, I'm expanding a bit; I've decided that it will be OK to post quotes/notes about things I'm reading, and how those, also, cause me to think and/or reevaluate the things that are important to me or going on in my life. I'm telling you this as if you actually had have input into deciding what I'm going to write about here...so goes life.

I read a whole book from cover to cover today. To be fair, it wasn't hard. It was Drops Like Stars, by Rob Bell. It's a beautiful book, literally; the pages are just as much about graphic design and telling the story through imagery as they are about the select choice of words printed on them. It's a book about suffering. In typical Rob Bell fashion, he seems to expend a lot of energy just trying to provoke the reader to think before offering a story or snippet that explains how he feels about it.

I'm not reading books like this out of curiosity. I truly hope to gain something from them, whether it be knowledge, truth, or just new way to think about an old topic. There was a paragraph that reached out to me, about halfway through the book:

"If we aren't careful, our success and security and abundance can lead to a certain sort of boredom, a numbing predictability, a paralyzing indifference that comes from being too comfortable."

Even after what I have been through in the past two years, I still find myself often "overwhelmed" with first world problems (follow the link, if you're not sure what a first world problem is.) And so I find myself going through mental gymnastics trying to find the balance between "haven't I suffered enough" and "do I need to suffer more" for the Gospel? I don't have an answer to those questions. I'm not really expecting to, not yet; but, I want to make sure I'm asking them. As I'm "struggling" with my first world problems, while acknowledging that I've been through the wringer myself, I guess I'm hoping God always keeps my heart open to the plight of the least of these and those who live with suffering their whole lives. Let's be clear, first world problems aren't suffering, but they are a great example of what we complain and worry about, the trivial issues that "plague" our lives, while children go hungry in our community, while the truly poor, the widowed, and the orphaned sit unnoticed by those of us who call ourselves Christians.

Abba, I come to you in brokenness. Even as I offer you what little I have, I ask that you keep my heart and mind open and aware to the suffering around me.