Human Sorrows

Recently I came across this quote I wrote in an old notebook:

"One of the greatest sorrows of human existence is that some people aren't happy merely to be alive, but find their happiness in the misery of others"

~Stefan in "Lightening" by Dean R. Koontz

I'm forever writing things down and finding them later wondering why I wrote it down or what it meant to me at the time I wrote it. We have lists of things to do, notes to remind us where the lists of things to do are. I never know when I'm going to come across a quote, note, or list of something. When I found this one, I thought how terribly sad at how much truth there really is to it.

When do people pray? When something bad is happening, right? When do we hear from long lost relatives or old friends? When something bad is happening, right? When do the news people get all pumped up and out there everywhere? When something bad is happening, right? When do fire trucks, police cars and ambulances turn their sirens on? When something bad is happening, right?

I remember staying at my grandparents house as a little girl. My grandmother forever listened to a scanner. She was so obsessed with it that she even took it to bed with her. Whenever that thing would squelch, she would yell, "Hark! Wilson! You hear that?" And off we'd go. She packs my sister and me up in the car and my grandfather would obediently drive us to the scene, "just to see".

Last night we watched We are Marshall (okay, so it is taking us a little while to get caught up to new releases). This true story is about a community that looses most of the members of the football team in a plane crash in 1970. A tragedy. But Jack Lengyel takes the opportunity to turn the town's grief into something good. Great movie, if you haven't seen it, do.

One of the boys came over the other night with his girlfriend. They told us a story about being someplace they probably had no business hanging out at. They laughed about people that were pushing shopping carts around (that they stole from a local Wally World or grocery store) filled with empty soda pop and beer cans. They shared a story about one "bum" that came up to them and asked if he could have a cigarette. Their response was, "No, get the (explicit) away from here!" They said they wondered why he didn't just find a job. I said, "Did you ask him that?" Although they found humor in the failure of these "bums", once I put the question on them, they didn't find it funny anymore.

When something bad is happening to someone else we feel better about ourselves because it's not happening to us. But what makes us any better? Who is to say that we aren't going to end up like them or worse? When there is tragedy or misery in some one's life (no matter who it is) we should be doing all we can to be an effective witness and example to them. Life change is done by God, but we are here to ". . . go and make disciples of all nations . . . "! If we do our job, you can rest assured knowing God will do His.