Getting It All Wrong

I get it wrong really often.

For Christmas I asked the family for a desktop speaker-thingy that I can dock an iPod classic in at work. I've wanted one ever since I became a desk-jockey. Candi delivered the goods! It sounds great and it's very simple. I was pleased and looking forward to taking it into work yesterday.

Then I went to charge the iPod. It wouldn't light up, play anything, and just made a bunch of very quiet clicks and whirls.

Driving in my truck yesterday, as I thought about the fact that I have a useless iPod Classic and an even more useless speaker, I said out loud "Ain't that a kick in the pants."

I love when God speaks to me. I never really know what he's going to say.

Today he said, "You know what's a kick in the pants? Growing up as a young woman in a country like Sierra Leone where rape is very possibly in your future, but that it is such a culturally accepted or ignored thing that your attacker will not be prosecuted and if you bring it up you will be ostrocized way before he is.

You know what's a kick in the pants? Having parents so poor that they do not have a dowry for you. Without a dowry you're not likely to be married. With no hope of marriage you'll likely have no where to turn but prostitution and a life of sex-trafficking.

You know what's a kick in the pants? Just days before the Christmas holiday, staring at presents under the tree that will never be opened by your 5-year old son because he was shot while at kindergarden by a crazed man whom you never met."

You know what's a kick in the pants? Living in a country where you and your family will be jailed or killed if your neighbor finds out that you claim Jesus as Lord.

A friend told me something yesterday (that is here poorly quoted): "There's first world problems and third world problems. And they don't compare."

America, we get it wrong really often. What are your iPod speakers today? How grieved are you that the shake machine is broken at McD's? Can we really be disappointed and grumble when we hit every red light on the way to work? Has running out of coffee creamer ruined your morning?

Shame on me. Yet again God is profound and right. What will I do to help those with a real kick in the pants?