World View by Susan L.

  I printed a map of the world a while ago and have been highlighting the various countries where blog readers have hooked into this site. (I may have mentioned this before.) Blogger only lists the top ten countries at any time so it's been fun to highlight the various places that only one or two hits have come from. It truly is a global village. Perhaps, in the not so distant future, every single country in the world will be checked off. That would be really cool but because of the abject poverty, illiteracy, the wars, the oppression in many of the places in this world, chances are, it won't.
  It's easy to get bogged down in not feeling well but I've been watching some documentaries regarding the refugees that have been pouring out of the middle east. Normally, when any reference is made to their struggles, I simply change the channel rather than think about the horrific lives these people face every day.
  It's easy to get bogged down in my day to day routine of work, home and extra curricular activities and forget that there are still those who live under the threat of death every day. And not just in countries across the ocean but our own aboriginal peoples are as well.
  It's easy to forget there are still tens of thousands of people living in conditions most of us wouldn't allow our pets to suffer. There's moms and dads and grandmothers and aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters starving to death or being sold into slavery, or the sex trade or being held hostage.
  Children are dying of starvation and disease.
  There is something seriously wrong here. One day, those of us in one of the wealthiest countries in the world will be held accountable.
  It's easy to forget that I am safe to come and go as I please. I've a car to get me there. It's easy to take popping into the grocery store, or the doctor's, or a friend's house for granted. It's easy to take filling a glass of water from the tap for granted or peering into an overflowing pantry only to complain that there's "nothing to eat".
  In 2015, the US, UK and Canada, had a combined population of 420,556,922 people. If even half of those individuals gave two dollars, the price of a coffee, the funds to help those most in need would be there. If only a fraction of the $6.5 BILLION a year spent on pets went to people in need, the world would be a far better place.
  When I pick up my map, I am holding the world in my hand...
  God forgive me for my complacency.
  Guide me, Lord, to where I can make even a small difference in someone's life.
  "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another." Jn 15:16-17