Just discovered I missed my post yesterday. :-( This is another reminder for me to make my posts earlier in the day. Nothing spectacular to report. I got caught up in watching my YouTube videos in the evening... then got so tired I just went to bed not even thinking about the post. I suppose that is life as a senior... maybe. :-)
I can do this! I need to find a better path. So, I will keep working on this.
This morning I became aware (again) of how fast time passes through our lives. I make lists for every day. The things I hope to get to, the things I have to get done. Every day things come up that aren't on my lists. I am trying to get better at deciding what is essential to get done, at what will make a difference in making my life better and my income greater so I can do more things. I don't know that I am winning my battle, but I do keep trying.
When you are the only one to do anything that needs to be done, it can be a challenge to find the path through all those little things. Everything takes time. Showers, laundry, making and eating food, washing dishes, vacuuming, sweeping, etc. Living in one small room is also a challenge for my goals.
I think it was last weekend I found a video where a man in another country was trying to help people in very, very poor circumstances. This video was about a young woman who was forced to be with an older man and had a child at 14. She also had another child about four years later. By the time of the video she was away from that man who didn't treat her well and was trying to care for her children alone. She (and her children) lived in a small metal building that had housed a cow in the other half of it. Metal structures get hot in the sun.
I think she worked for her housing because there didn't seem to be an cash available to her, or very little money. She was collecting food that would be considered garbage for them to eat. The had some kind of mattresses on the ground. I wondered what happened to her housing when it rained. She did create a separate space for a toilet area. I think she was trying to grow food in a very small part of her dirt area, but the soil looked like hard clay because of the heat where she lived.
I wondered what she could hope for without an education or money or anyone to help her. When the video was done and her living space was changed to something much better, I wondered who would steal it all from her when the man was gone. It was a hard video to watch and to think about.
There are so many millions of people suffering in our world. How do we help them?
Even if Working Together was fully funded, there would still be millions we could not help. Any government that exists cannot help everyone. Churches do the best they can, but the wealthiest church that exists cannot help everyone.
The cry we hear is that the government is the one to trust with the task -- and to accomplish this goal they want to take everything from everybody (starting with the wealthy) and then share it among all the people. I wonder what that would be per person if we actually did the math.
Even this will not work. All these cries forget that the people in charge never want to suffer the slightest lack. These kinds of leaders take what they want first, then they forget about the poor because the poor cannot fight back.
God told us what He thought we should do.
I try to see/discover what could be done to help as many as possible without taking away their freedoms and respect. I still come up with the problem that everyone cannot be helped in every way. PLUS, any effort to help others has to deal with those who steal for themselves.
I have also spent my life trying to decide what is enough. What are the basic needs we have to find to survive and grow and build a better world for the future? Food, shelter, and work that benefits us and the world, or that cares for the vulnerable, of which I am now one, are the first basic needs. Then we have to deal with other basic needs that differ by person/family.
How much will this cost? How can we build a place that will accomplish this?
The End Times create a whole new environment for surviving. I don't know how Christians can protect themselves in a world of growing hate and violence, corrupt governments, and poverty. I remember watching Hunger Games and wondered how it might reflect our future.
One of my ongoing projects is to prep for disasters. The first goal is just enough to get through the first two weeks so you can find out what else needs to be done to survive longer if that is required. This is the topic of a lot of the videos I watch. Everyone has a different way of preparing for their family.
If a serious emergency happens, life will change in so many ways. People who don't have the supplies they need will want to take them away from others. And there won't be law and order anymore. I imagine America will become somewhat like those other places we see in the news: violent and abusive and ruled by dictators, criminals, or military forces.
Time seems to fly by because we are so busy with our own survival needs, we don't have time to notice all these changes happening. We trust our government and/or have to deal with what it creates. There isn't an easy solution to what prophecy warns us is coming. We have to stop and think about our lives now so we can prepare for what is coming.
I hope you can do that.
In Christ,
Deborah Martin
