First World Cat Problems

Have any dire, first world problems of your own?

I can’t use the internet on my laptop when I am at home,

My cats have claimed my chair and it is covered in their fur,

The AC in my room doesn’t work, so it’s hotter than the rest of my house,

And I get really grumpy after a few hours of job searching.

There is always something small—or not so small—around to make your day less than ideal. Maybe it’s your relationship with the people you live with. Maybe you miss friends or community that aren’t nearby anymore. Maybe your job (or lack of one) is frustrating you.

I found an unexpected and yet unsurprising remedy for some of my first world problems at the Convoy of Hope event that happened in Frederick this weekend. Convoy of Hope is a national organization that partners with local nonprofits and volunteers to do community outreach events for people who are food-insecure (who don’t know where their next meal is coming from). I volunteered with my Mom and some women from our church who have volunteered for the past few years at the yearly event in our city. It’s a day for guests and their families to come and get free groceries, shoes, haircuts, family portraits, medical attention and much more.

I was really impacted by the rally the night before for the several hundred people volunteering for the event. As they were getting everybody pumped and giving them a more realistic picture of the people we were serving, my mind was racing and “critically analyzing” the way my college taught me. Of the 17,100 people in Frederick county who are food-insecure, 54% do not qualify for any kind of assistance… Immediately, I’m back to the “Homelessness in America” seminar I took at school. Implications for system reform? What do we need to fix to address holes in the safety net? Should we be addressing the safety net, or focus on the economic and education systems that are such big contributors to the high poverty rate in our country? Shouldn’t I be focusing my efforts on more long term effectors than a one-day event?

As my mind was busy being critical, my attention was drawn back in by the leaders, who were talking about the ways in which a day sparks a movement, how hope changes lives, and how Jesus is the ultimate hope that people need regardless of income. …Poverty is the absence of hope, the absence of desire for change or the expectation that change will happen. And I realized how silly I was being! Not only had I been getting caught on all of my first world problems, forgetting about the people in my community who literally have eaten cat food when they had no food to eat, but when I was reminded about them, I was too busy critically examining whether this was the best use of my “helping others” time. Meanwhile, hundreds of people from different churches all around my community had gathered together because they have a heart for the people Jesus told us to serve and care for, and I was missing the opportunity to praise him for it! Thankfully, I managed to ditch my elitist, educated at a liberal arts private college brain in time to pray and sing with the people there preparing their hearts to serve the next day and praying for God to move in the people in our city.

It was a good weekend… although between Convoy of Hope and preaching at church on Sunday it felt kind of like walking down humility lane and thankfulness road at the same time. In case you weren’t aware, this tends to make your ego—and your knee—sore :) 

What about you? Are there areas in your life where you are being taught humility? Thankfulness? 

P.S. If there are not enough kittens in this post for you, I recently found ANOTHER CAT BLOG! This one is in Japanese, which I think makes it that much better.