Thoughts about my selfishness...

Things are actually tight financially. How will things work out? After hearing from the Mississippi team today, I realized how much excess I have in my life. People have nothing in our own country and I am complaining.
Christmas is coming and the Gulf Coastis still devastated. When my mother asked me what I want, I told her I would get back with her. It is so easy for me to get caught up in material possessions. How about a desire to help that translates into action? I want so many things that are meaningless and, as Solomon rightly described them, "a chasing after the wind". I feel so foolish when I lose track of the things that really matter in life. I trade Real Life for that which is manufactured for me.
I understand that every need is not one I am morally obligated to meet. Yet, should I stop with that statement? Life is about relationships. In Ghana this summer, our team had visited a woman that was dying of AIDS alone in her apartment. I was struggling with this as we were walking through a market. I felt so inadequate. I was frustrated with God and asking him why her, and why me? I was so focused on myself and how I felt about the situation.Then I felt a small hand in mine. I looked down, and there was a Ghanaian boy standing there (pictured above). We were in an area of Ghanathat did not speak Twi or English, so we just looked at each other, held hands and tried to communicate through a local photographer that was following us that day. I found out that he was a Muslim boy named Anam. This boy changed how I view the world. God used a Muslim child that had a different religion, culture, language and skin color to show His love to me. I don't know why this came out, but take it if you want. God is so much bigger than us. I want these words to me mine:

Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever...
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
That I may tell of all Your works.

Psalm 73:25-26, 28