THE REALITY OF LIFE

As life goes on we tend to accumulate stuff, usually a lot of stuff. Some stuff we use, some we once used. Whether we use it or not, need it or not, we still have it and we had the ability to get it.

I will always remember finding this old lady living by herself in Baseco and I will always remember my thoughts about her, which were along these lines.

"These pictures represent the sum total of her life (at least "stuff" wise"). Over the course of her life, this is what she ends up with. She's alone and has basically nothing. There is no "excess" here. Nothing to fall back on. At her age, life is still very much a daily grind trying to just eat, get water and survive. No power, no running water, she would wash her own clothes by hand and cook whatever food she could find on driftwood washed up by the ocean. This would have been her "normal life" for a long time and it will be the same until she dies."

It's easy to see how the life someone might easily complain about in some countries, could just as easily be the sort life someone else would love if they'd ever gotten the chance to live it.

(**originally posted by our senior pastor, Mark Pedder, on his personal facebook account and we also posted it here.)