I have a couple of friends who have lived or are currently living in a third world country and therefore have experience with the 3rd world style of living. They have learned how to be comfortable where the comforts of home are few and far between. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go through a summer without air conditioning, walk the 6 miles to work every day, not have a warm bed to sleep in each night. My most recent frustration is that our fridge no longer dispenses water from the door. We have resorted to keeping a pitcher of water inside the door. Oh the humanity. I have lived in Naperville, IL for most of my life. I’ve grown comfortable in my community. Three Starbucks withing a two block radius does not phase me. The Porsche population is in the triple digits and I don’t bat an eye anymore when one drives by. I am comfortable.

But I am not naive.

I know that there are millions of people in the world that do not know what conditioned air feels like. I know there are people that walk miles upon miles each day just to get water. I know that many throughout the world do not have the proper back support when they sleep. I know that knowing isn’t enough.

Do we need to feel discomfort to really make a difference?

What makes you uncomfortable?

Think about the first time you rode a bike. Were you amazing or did you scratch your knee? I’m guessing you got hurt… if you didn’t get hurt… I’ll bet you didn’t go off and win the Tour-de-France that same year. But maybe you’re pretty good now right? That’s called experience. I know, I know. I’ve got some pretty revolutionary stuff in this blog post.

Now do you remember the first you saw a tornado? For me it was in the movie Twister with Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. Young Philip Seymour Hoffman talking about the suck zone… flying cows… Aunt Meg’s burgers. Brings me back…

Anyways. When you first saw that tornado, either on the TV screen or in real life. You didn’t have a sudden urge to run right up to it and go for a quick little tour around the corn field did you? No… of course not. That would be silly.

I wrote that useless post to lead up this really good next line:

Wise comes with experience, but it doesn’t mean you have to go through the eye of the storm to know a tornado is windy.

[Image by: haphotography]

Growing up is hard. Sometimes we feel forgotten… alone… fat… dirty… but God sees us for who we really are.

BEAUTIFUL! LOVED! BOLD! PURE! SUCCESSFUL! RESPECTED!

ENOUGH!