Counting Blessings

Today there are 195 countries in the world, 193 countries that are member states of the United Nations and 2 countries that are non-member observer states: the Holy See and the State of Palestine. Also not included in the 195 is Taiwan which the United Nations considers represented by the People’s Republic of China. 331 million Americans represent 4.1% of the 7.9 billion people we share this planet with. Sooooo . . . what’s so blessed about waking up this morning in the good ole USA experiencing the worst inflation in 40 years, the rising cost of living, political and social turmoil, etc., etc., etc.???

As I sat reading in my Lazy Boy this morning, sipping my steamy cup of coffee, in my warm home, my mother’s words echoed from Above, “Count your blessings Freddy.” ‘Coincidentally’ I then read this following anonymous creative piece that convicting struck me just how truly blessed I am . . . I so love His impromptu ‘coincidences’ 😊

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If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following.  There would be:

57 Asians

21 Europeans

14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south

8 would be Africans

52 would be female

48 would be male

70 would be non-white
30 would be white

70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian

6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States

80 would live in substandard housing

70 would be unable to read

50 would suffer from malnutrition

1 would be near death

1 would be near birth

1 would have a college education

1 would own a computer.

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.

And therefore . . .

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.  

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

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It’s solely by God’s amazing mercy and grace I didn’t wake up this morning hungry, sick, homeless and persecuted in some third world country of this ‘World’s Village’. For that I am forever grateful, prudently remembering this undeserved blessing comes with a Divine caveat:

“For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required, and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.” – Luke 12:4

Kinda’ makes my Lazy Boy a tad less comfortable; my coffee a little less steamy; and my warm home a bit cooler pondering how I can better share my many blessings with those multitudes doing without.

Keep Looking Up . . . His best is yet to come!