There was a TV series years ago, based on events in Bosnia and the experiences of the UN peace keeping force which highlighted the contrast between real suffering and what often passes for it. The scene would be familiar to those in the military I think; a soldier having completed his tour of duty returned to civilian life and was pushing a shopping cart around a supermarket in a daze as he tried to adjust to this new reality. In one isle was a mother and child; the latter was having a tantrum and holding the mother to ransom over a toy she ‘needed’.
The soldier found the scene quite unbearable, sickening to watch, as he told them how trivial this was by recalling a recent memory and said “I have seen people who were on fire”.
Of course the natural selfishness and sense of entitlement often displayed by children is usually eliminated eventually by good parenting and the onset of gratitude for being so fortunate.
Many years later a news story caught my attention. At the very beginning of the ISIS invasion of Iraq a town was invaded and all the Christian families were evicted at gunpoint with just the clothes on their backs. One patriarch was interviewed on the news as he sat with his entire family, wife, children, grandchildren and other relatives in a tent in a makeshift refugee camp. He was crying as he lamented his losses, his farm, vehicles, cash, crops and livestock and he exclaimed “we used to live like Kings, now look at us”
Two weeks later, as ISIS got a taste for their work, the narrative changed from evictions of Christian families to martyrdoms. There was a big change of perspective for the early survivors, as they realised that they still had each other and the opportunity of starting again.
Acceptance and gratitude to God for what we have in the moment will help us to guard our hearts, retain our composure and be at peace despite setbacks.
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