What Do We Have to Complain About

How ridiculously easy it is to get caught up in our own lives. When life becomes all about me, it is seems I complain about everything that doesn’t please me: the checking account balance, the amount of the taxes owed on April 15th, the crazy schedule, the friend who I haven’t heard from, my job, the politicians in Washington, the house projects that never seem to get done, the weather which is too cold and rainy, the bugs for starting to appear, the slow driver in front of me, the rude person who rang me out at the store, the advice my husband wants to give me, the lack of appreciation I feel, and the list goes on and on. One thing that will get me complaining is to tell me I am a complainer! I will stand on that soap box for a good length of time! lol I was already going to write on a complaining spirit today when I read a friend’s blog. Brittne has a special friend she acquired in Peru, his name is Parker. He worked in the poverty stricken areas in Lima.  Parker accepted an opportunity to transfer 9 months of his service in Peru, to Haiti. He left for Haiti on April 15th. Haiti was a place that tore at our heartstrings when we watched its devastation on our televisions for days in a row after the earthquake. However, now that the coverage has faded, so has our attention! After all, they must be getting things back to order by now, right? That statement could not be further from the truth. I would like to share with you most of his first report after being in Haiti three days.

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1. Being in Haiti overwhelms the soul. I have to type these words to allow some of my emotions to escape.
2. I will only be able to get on the internet once every couple weeks, due to the absolute non-existence of electricity here in Port-au-Prince. Everything, absolutely everything is run of off gasoline or propane generators. You should see this place at night; the devastation completely vanishes into the darkness.
3. This 21st century kid has been in Haiti for three days, and has bore witness to desolation and chaos that most of the world will never see, except maybe through a television screen.
4. After taking a shower in Haiti one remains clean for approximately seven minutes, and when I take showers my skin loses a shade of gray.
5. Some of the bricks that before the earthquake made up a wall right close to where I am housed are now utilized as a weight set that I made from rope and conveyor belt racks. This works very well, and I have come to find out that I receive the same amount of exertion without all of the monthly fees.
6. On the plane from Miami to Port-au-Prince the woman sitting next to me informed me that the mosquitoes would be waiting for me. This is random fact number one. Random fact number two is that she was infallibly correct.
Everything that I have ever complained about regarding my education, country, hygiene, health, wealth, circumstances, surroundings, is forever invalid and obsolete. It just no longer carries any weight. Zilch. One is drastically changed (slapped in the face) when everything he believed to be normal and superfluous is seen as lucrative luxury. There is a vivid reason that God allowed me to spend a lot of time as a child in a camper in West Texas. It’s the closest thing I have to compare my current living situation, without the air conditioner, with the 110 degree heat.
If my mind possessed every word in the English language, I could not describe to you in an adequate manner the way Haiti makes a person feel. The tragedy and hopelessness of this failed country are beyond anything that anyone could learn at any school, at any education level. This feeling can only be felt when one has a 3D experience. When the land cries out amid abating screams, sobbing until implosion, slowly fading into the abyss, vomiting up destruction, chaos, filth, rubble, smoke, broken promises, warped dependence, violence, fueled by a certain type of chasm between friends and foe that can only be created by the fleeting opportunity to survive, one has to search/yearn/pray for a new tomorrow. Jimmy (23) and Patrick (25) are two of these people who do not care in the least bit what you think. This duo formerly was known as a trio, routinely organizing Bible studies in the neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, but the third musketeer, a young man by the name of Alex, was in a house church in the capital when the first earthquake hit, and the house and everyone in the service were leveled. The fact that Alex was one of the three hundred thousand who perished in the earthquake motivated the other two to convert their home into an orphanage and named it Alex’s House, inviting every street kid they meet to live with them, attending classes held in the different bedrooms by different friends of theirs. This is uplifting, heartwarming, motivating, awe-inspiring, gleeful, humbling, soul-touching, priority-shifting, stuff. Think about it. Really. Ponder over this life that these people lead. Born into a country dominated into submission by a government whose only role is to lobby other countries for money/booty/loot/provisions, only to overtly steal all of said “AID” to gluttonously fuel their own corrupt campaigns and complacent existences, raised in an environment that pulsates pity. This little blip of Haitian “wisdom” is found on a billboard right outside of the Port-au-Prince airport. It states that “Haiti extends her arms and cries ‘have pity.’” This is a country beat-down, beleaguered by its seemingly endless plight towards nowhere.
Hugo Chavez’ gift to Haiti, a power plant to support all of Port-au-Prince, has ceased to function. It was less than a year old. Streets with streetlamps that in the past radiated beauty now lie in darkness and deceit, covered in rubble and fiery trash. And Jesus patiently bides his time, waiting to be glorified. Arise Haiti, arise. Reject that which comes from the Evil One. Arise!

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If you are like me you are sitting there numb. Totally and completely humbled! Is life really all about me? Should my selfcenteredness and my list of complaints really matter? If my eyes could just learn to see the world the way God sees it, maybe ‘I’ could fade to the background. I have decided that I am going to fast this week. I would be glad to have others commit alongside me to this endeavor. Oh, but maybe I should tell you that I am not fasting food. Oh, now you’re willing to consider! lol  I am going to fast complaining. For one week, I am not going to complain. Each time I want too, I am going to think about Parker in Haiti and ask myself, “What do I have to complain about, really?” Want to join me?

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

James 3:16