BEING MORE INTENTIONAL ABOUT VERY ORDINARY THINGS - TWENTY-ONE

This is the twenty-first in a series of periodic reflections on the "ordinary things" that many people do on a regular basis without much thought. During this pandemic, I am developing a need to "rage, rage" against haste and laziness and replace it with care and attention. My hope is to become personally more intentional about doing ordinary things with care and focused attention, while inspiring others to maybe do the same.

HAVING A SAFE PLACE TO LIVE 

My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust.

God's faithfulness is a protecting shield.

Psalm 91:2,4

During this pandemic, it is very easy to focus on all the bad things that are happening - sickness, unemployment, racial unrest, nasty personal behaviors of all kinds and even death.

As an alternative to being overly focused on all that, I am making a deliberate effort to do two things - focus on the needs of others and focus on the things for which I need to be grateful.

The other day, I heard there was a tropical storm heading right for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines where I have been volunteering for the last five years. I thought of the mudslides that I have seen covering the roads after lots of rain. I thought about all those mountainside shacks that I have passed many times when I have been down there. I thought of the poor families living in them during a tropical storm, scared that a mudslide might engulf them or scared that their home could collapse around them any minute and everything they own could be swept away, leaving them dead in some ravine never to be seen again. I keep asking myself, "what is it like not having a safe place to live?"

I thought about all those people, one pay check away from eviction, wondering what in the world their families would do if they were asked to leave their rented homes. I have never had to think about being kicked out of the home I lived in because it belonged to someone else and I could not afford to pay them for the right to live there! Some of them have been going through that anxiety every month for years. Some of them have had to move more times than they can probably remember. I keep asking myself, "what is it like not having a safe place to live?"

It crossed my mind at some point that some people are forced to live in terror of physical, verbal, psychological and sexual abuse. For them, their house is not a "home," but a prison, a psych ward and a torture chamber with no escape route. I keep asking myself, "what is it like not having a safe place to live?"

I try to imagine what it would be like to live in a dangerous, high-crime area, where people have to sleep with one eye open and a gun or knife under their pillow in case of a home invasion, where people have to listen to shouting and cursing most of the night, where people are afraid to go outside even during the day or open their door to anyone who knocks? I keep asking myself, "what is it like not having a safe place to live?"

Then I look around my roomy, Germantown, paid-for, air-conditioned, secure condo and I realize how blessed I am! When I go to bed an night, I know that I will sleep peacefully and secure and with nothing really to worry about! When I really take the time to think of others, I am filled with a sense of gratitude. I realize again that my little "aggravations" are not really "problems" so surely I can at least give up complaining. When I go to bed at night, expecting a peaceful restful sleep, I pray for those who do not have that luxury in their lives. I ask God to protect them from harm. I ask God to help me break the habit of "making mountains out of molehills" because I know what it is like to have a safe place to live.