Puzzling part 2... and a half

So I started blogging yesterday to work out some of what I had been puzzling about... and I had quite a post started. Then I got interrupted. Then the internet went down because of an incredible rain storm last night. So. It didn't get posted. In fact, it didn't even get saved. And now it's nearing midnight again, and I just don't quite have the energy to write anything more than a bit of fluff :( Sorry.

I'm still puzzling a bit about this whole thing between comfort and suffering and what we're meant to do. One of the translators here is taking an online theology course, and one of his assignments this week was to list 10 ethical dilemmas that Christians face today and then to write a bit of a discussion of those dilemmas. This translator usually brings his assignment questions to me to clarify some of the English, and to make sure that he's on the right track about the answers. So today we had a short little question about what are ethical dilemmas. And this whole issue that's come up about my personal comfort and Christ's suffering was forefront in my mind. I think it is a bit of an ethical dilemma here - how much of the resources that God has blessed me with should I use for my own personal comfort when my Christian brothers and sisters here have so little? Should I go out and spend $6 on chicken and chips for lunch when my friends can't even send their children to school because they can't afford to buy them a uniform? Should we pay for the generator to be run for several hours every day so I can be cool in front of a fan when my neighbors live in mud huts and hardly have enough money to buy charcoal to boil their water for tea?

I don't know. It's a bit of an ethical dilemma. It's one that I've thought about a lot over the past few years living in places like this. And the conversation I had with an expat colleague here the other day made me realize that some people have some very different views than I do on this whole issue!

I'm still puzzling over it, and I think I probably will for a very long time. In fact, I HOPE I puzzle over it for a long time, because I don't want to become callous or insensitive to the situations of the people around me. I don't want to live in a comfortable little bubble that's all about me! And yet, I know that I simply would not be able to live here long term without some things that I have grown accustomed to. So it's all about finding the right balance, and trusting that the Lord will give me peace about how he wants me to use his resources for the glory of His kingdom... but unfortunately, that's one of those things that's easier said than done!