I was sitting in a restaurant, waiting for my food to arrive, and listening to the conversations of those around me—discussion about the Chiefs first preseason game was at the top of the agenda for many folks. Others were talking of the most recent golf game or the PGA Championship, others were discussing the Olympics, NASCAR, and even the Cardinals. It took me a few minutes to realize the great LUXURY I was witnessing.
In another part of the world—a woman is screaming from the front yard of her home, now destroyed, neighbors are unable to console her. Thousands of miles away a young man cries and tears his clothes at the death of his sister, the result of bus bombing.
In the heat of the desert, a mother dying of starvation, her breasts hanging flat and empty, looks into the face of her infant child hopelessly. Parents look on as their two teenage children fill recycled milk jugs with water as they prepare for the long and dangerous walk across the southern border of the United States. The year has been disastrous for farmers and the family’s only hope is if the children can find work so that they can send money home.
Desperate to feed his family, a man works the field of illegal poppies, nervously looking over his shoulder for the soldiers who will imprison him if he is caught, and the strong arm gangs that come to rob him of the very little he has. For either to happen would mean certain death for his family.
Meanwhile…
“How did the Cardinals do anyway? Do you think they can save the season?” “I went to the PGA Championship…it was so cold I thought I was going to die!” “I lost $100 bucks on the race last week. I would have been better if I had just gone to the casino…Can you believe it, failing to qualify for that race after working for all those years. She said it was the most important thing in her life.”
Luxury: Being able to waste time having conversations about things which have no bearing on your life or the lives of your family.
You have the power to help others know this luxury. Are you using it?
The Episcopal Relief and Development
https://support.episcopalrelief.org
Father Bill Myrick
