I have been thinking a lot about the idea of having options or choices in life. What got me started on this topic are the conversations I have been having with my Spanish teacher here in Quito. He has a hard time understanding the idea of quitting a job to travel through foreign countries. He is focused on paying his monthly bills, not unlike a lot of North Americans. At first I thought options and choices were only available to the upper class (if you live in the United States and are reading this blog I consider you to be in the upper class).
As I discussed this topic further I realized that everyone has choices in life that we must make. Some have more difficult choices than others. For example, a basic salary in Ecuador is $250 per month. To live out a basic lifestyle costs around $500 per month. So the typical Ecuadorian is faced with a couple of options:
1) Get a better paying job. This may or may not be possible given the economic situation, ability, or education level.
2) If married, both husband and wife would need to work in order to meet a basic existence. $250 + $250 = $500. This leaves kids that need to be raised to the grandparents or someone else.
3) Try to make ends meet on $250 or suffer through some of the effects of poverty.
Some of the women we met in Nicaragua had even more difficult choices. We heard stories of many women who faced the choice of either not providing food, shelter, and basic needs for their children or entering into prostitution. I think it is impossible for us to even consider what we would do in their situation. Many of those women have chosen to follow Christ, and therefore leave their life of prostitution not knowing if they will be able to provide for their families.
One big question that this has caused me to think about is... Has God promised to provide for our physical needs? I don´t think that he has. I think that he promises to take care of our eternal needs and often times provides for us in this life, but there are many examples from around the world where He is not providing for the phyisical or temporal needs of his children. I won´t go into this issue any further here as their have been many great Christian thinkers who have addressed the problem of evil.
Considering the options and choices many people around the world face helps me to put into perspective the options that I have. At the very least I should enter into conversations with God about the choices I am making with thankfulness and humbleness and not in a spirit of discontent.
I would love to see comments from others on this topic.
Dave: All of us have options but often fail to recognize it. Satan uses busyness and routine to block the consideration of our options from our mind. The only wise thing to do is stop and reflect on our choices. If we don't like where we are there is only one way out - do something differently. Einstein's definition of insanity is, "do the same thing and expect a different result." Here is to stopping and reflecting. The world will be a better place if we do.
ReplyDeleteDiego (Doug Morton)