Now here's what we call a good snow in eastern Tennessee. This was taken of Jill and Julianne this past winter as I pulled up to the house after work. I bet it took Jill all of an hour to make that little snowman. But Julianne thought it was practically a blizzard. My friends in Colorado called about an hour after this picture was taken to tell me they had two feet of snow on the ground and more was still coming.
But to us - especially the little ones - this was a big thing. I do believe they even cancelled school for this.
In reflection I see that this is the way people are in other areas of their life. They may think events in theri own personal lives - especially trials - are insurmountable and deep. Yet in comparison to others, it pales. At college, one of my roomates asked for serious prayer because his executive dad wasn't getting as much of a bonus as they had hoped... while down the hall prayer was going up for a roommate who has to leave school because of a baseball-sized tumor in his brain. (He survived the harrowing surgeries and came back to school before the end of the year.)
In each of our minds, yes, the suffering I'm going through is real and hurting but let's not fail to realize that others around us need compassion and support. Let's not shut down and fence ourselves in. As Christians let's reach out and assist others who are in need and share each other's burdens, with people both inside and outside the faith. They're all heavy burdens, and in need of extra shoulders.
