Look around you.

I've been sick over the past couple of days.  Sick enough to cause me to sleep for 22 hours (and then some).  At one point, I turned on the news and the first story was about a family whose 3 year old was missing.  Kidnapped from her home.  Incomprehensible.  Suddenly my little headache didn't seem all that important.

I feel selfish when I worry about the $60 erroneous charge on my credit card in comparison to the family whose house just burned to the ground.

I feel spoiled when I lay in my comfortable bed, stricken with a headache and low grade fever while someone a few miles away lays in a hospital bed stricken with cancer.

There is this tug of war that goes on in my brain between God caring about little old me and God having bigger things to worry about.

Resist him (the devil), firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 1 Peter 5:9

Substitute "worse" for "same" in the above verse.  Worse kinds of suffering, much worse than my own.  In Japan.  In Libya.  In the US.  Across town.  Down the street.  In the lives of my family and friends.

I have a sweet friend whose baby is facing brain surgery in a few weeks.  No comparison.  My sister-in-law is pulling double duty to sweet little Aubrey while her husband is deployed to Egypt for a year (or longer).  No comparison.  A dear friend who just suffered a miscarriage.  No comparison.  Friends who are at the end of a marriage.  Friends whose parents are at the end of their lives.  Friends who are on the verge of losing it all.  Daily, I can turn on the news and watch as men and women across the globe suffer through traumatic and devastating situations. And as I compare my "suffering" with theirs, I begin to feel selfish and guilty.

Which got me thinking...

We know that God doesn't rank sin. He says lustful intent is adultery.  Anger is murder.  (Hard to comprehend with this limited little mind of mine ... but it's still true.)

I don't think He ranks my suffering either.

When He says He has come to bind up the brokenhearted ... I think He means the jr. high girl who just got her heart broken by a silly boy.  And the orphan in Japan who lost her parents.

When He says He has come to proclaim liberty to captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound ... I think He means the guy who is bound by his addiction to alcohol.  And the girl who is literally enslaved in the sex trade.

When He says He has come to comfort all who mourn ... I think He means the new bride who cries because she is moving away from mom and dad.  And the young woman who cries because she is burying her mom.

My pain is not overlooked because someone's pain is greater.  His grace is sufficient, regardless of the depth of the pain.

This is what I love about Him.  However silly my situation or my feelings seem in comparison to the larger plights of the world, He still sees me. 

So today, I'm thankful.  I'm thankful that God gives me perspective on my problems, showing me I'm not alone in my pain, while also exposing my heaviness to reveal that it is lighter than it feels in this moment.

I'm also thankful that, at the same time, He is big enough and strong enough to carry my friends through their darkest moments.

He cares about my headache when His other child's heart is failing.

He cares about my disappointment when His other child's life is crumbling around them.

And as he heals me, restores me, comforts me, and fills me with faith, He then says, "Look around you" ... sending me out with authority to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to comfort all who mourn, to raise up the former devastations.