I vacillate between hating the news and not being able to get enough of it. I like to stay informed and to take a peak outside my little safe haven a bit, but sometimes it’s just too much for my head and my heart.
NBC News has a feature called “The Week in Pictures” on their website and I’ve taken to browsing through it once a week. Some of the shots are absolutely breathtaking!
There are scenes that capture our culture and some of the major headlines of the week…
They usually have an amazing weather shot or two…
And a few that make you shake your head…or shiver…
And then…
Then there are the ones that absolutely destroy your heart. Like a baby who survived an airstrike in Damascus…
Or the family that gathered all of their belongings and fled from Banguiin, the Central African Republic that is under attack…
Or the mom and baby in South Sudan that are fortunate enough to have a mosquito net as they ride out being displaced due to fighting between the government and rebel forces…
We don’t have a clue. We wake up every morning in safe, warm homes with rights and freedoms and liberties and food and clean water. I don’t worry that my home will be bombed or that my children will be killed by rebels outside my door. I don’t wonder how or when I’ll eat again or where I’ll have to go to find food or shelter or safety. I don’t wonder where I’ll sleep at night nor do I have to consider keeping watch instead of resting. The decisions I make on a daily basis look nothing like theirs. I hope my kids grow up to the know the Lord and live for Him and treat others according to His word…and they’re just hoping their kids live.
Pray for these people; their plight isn’t as easy or as fanciful as ours. They are fighting battles much harder than I’ve ever even thought about facing.
I encourage to take a peak at one of their series’ or look back at the Year in Pictures – get outside of your living room walls a bit. Then, thank the Lord for your many blessings and thank Him that we don’t have a clue what that life is like…and then ask Him to change it for those afflicted.
Oh so true!!!! Amen to that! Thank you for the reminder, it’s so easy to forget with all the negativity on the news in this country that it is SOOOOO much worse in many other places on this earth.