It happened almost immediately. No sooner than I had hit the "publish post" tab on my blog entry yesterday entitled "Would You Move....Please", did a young lady from Kenya walk in my office. I have no doubt that God sent her in the door of the College Church and eventually into the door of my office. God had a plan! I had just finished a rant about how the selling of our house back in Tennessee was holding us back from moving forward here in Searcy....then she walked in.
Upon meeting her I could tell she was carrying a burden. She was holding back tears as she said, "I just need someone to talk to." When someone says that you know they are carrying a load. So, I invited her in my office and she began to empty what was weighing her down. As I mentioned, she was from Kenya and a small unnamed village at that. She was wearing a Harding Cross Country t-shirt and she looked the part of a runner. She began to tell me that her parents had both died with in the same year when she was only 2 years old, and five years later at the age of 7 her grandparents passed away too. I began to see that this burden was real. She told me that she and her 7 siblings pretty much raised themselves, with her older brother (who is now only 29) being the one with the most responsibility. So, needless to say this young lady has had a lot of tragedy in her life....but was there something else? Then she said it...she began to explain that she was the only one of her family to have the opportunity to attend college and that she really had no worries here in Searcy. After all she had a bed to sleep in, good food to eat, she was getting a first class education (which by the way she is a Pre-Med major and carries a 3.5+ GPA), and life was the best she had ever experienced. But here's the burden....she has never been home since she came to Harding in 2008, the 28+ hour plane ride is just too expensive and each time she talks with her family she comes away feeling the guilt of having all the luxuries that I listed earlier and her family in Kenya are barely having ONE meal a day! That's when it hits her. She feels so bad for her family and she wishes they could experience the same things she does. As she sat in my office and told me more about herself and her life experiences I began to think You Don't Have It So Bad! This girl has been through so much and is carrying around such a load right now and you "need" your house to sell? I could hear God telling me to get off the "woe is me bus" and come back to reality! I have it really good! God was telling me I need to have a reality check. I have the money to pay our mortgage, someone is LETTING us live in an open house they have, I have 2 vehicles, I have PLENTY of food to eat, I have a beautiful wife who loves me, a beautiful daughter that lights up my day, a family that I am loved by, a job that I love, and on and on! Wake up! You Don't Have It So Bad!
I don't know how you are feeling today, but I am more than certain you have more things to be thankful for than you do to complain about! God knew I needed to be reminded of that, so he sent that young lady from Kenya in to bless my life! That she did, bless my life!
Just Thinking-
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