Yesterday, I went to get my car registered, and pay the property tax and sales tax on it. I went into this incredibly monotonous and boring place, sat and waited till my number was called. I noticed one of the woman actually called out the number of the next person, while the other just pushed a button and waited till someone saw their number shine in bold red digital numbers up above the counters.
My dad and I got the woman who didn't call out people's numbers, and I discovered when we met her at the counter that she could barely even make a sound with her vocal chords. She was probably about eighty years old, working in a place like this.
My heart sank...
As a little girl, did it ever cross her mind that at the age of eighty, she would be subjected to sitting at the other side of a counter, in a place like that, taking care of the registration of vehicles all day?
I just can't wrap my mind around these sort of things...
Why anyone would want to live in a manner such as this?
That woman is going to go to her grave maybe really soon, and this is how she is to living her last years?
As a citizen of the United States, I recognize how blessed I am to have been born here. I realize that God put me here and opened up many opportunities for me with just being placed here...and I realize because of that, I am enabled to help others not only around me, but other countries as well.
We have been blessed so that we can bless others.
Why don't people strive for more here in the US?
Were, "Proud to be American", but for us being prideful of that, we have not made much use of the privileges we have
I generalize this claim probably because of the place I work. I was gone for ten weeks this summer, and I come back to my same workplace and see most of the same people, still living out their same routines...mostly older people. They get the same lottery tickets, the same cigarettes, they come in the same number of times during the week, and I could go on.
When I think back to the life I lived in Ecuador, how each day was different, each week I was probably in a different part of Ecuador experiencing different things and meeting different people....all the while those people who come to my work were still doing their same routines the entire time I was gone. That's just amazing to me....
" Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind. then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me." Ecclesiastes 2:18
In the end, with all the work we do, we are just going to leave it to the next person who's going to take our place...and the only work on earth that will ever last will be the work we've done for God's kingdom.
3 comments:
the similarities between your thoughts and mine on this subject are so strikingly consistent that i have only to conclude that most people reach these conclusions. When i went to europe for a month or so, it changed my perspective permanently. I began to see the possibilities in people, both unused and realized. and like u said, we all leave it to the next guy. i wanted to be a doctor or a firemen as a little...er boy(18 and totally a MAN) but now ive come to realize that those things arent really worth it. Physical things belong to a temporary world where rust and moth consume. Only spiritual pursuits have any lasting value.
Wow, a comment I actually understand for once. Hahahaha.
Europe? Wowza...I've always wanted to travel Europe, lucky! But yeah, very true.
I like the overall point of the article, but I think it's also important to remember that people can glorify God no matter how boring their job is. She could just as easily be a born-again Christian who serves in several different functions in her church, talks to her co-workers about Christ, and gives heavily to different ministries. It may not be likely, but I wouldn't discount that possibility based on how dull her life seems in that one place at that one time. Who knows, maybe she did exciting things throughout most of her life, and is just looking to serve God locally until He takes her home.
Food for thought.
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