Life isn't fair...

So here I am awake at 2am again...jumped on facebook because what else do you do at this time of day?  While cruising through some friends post, I saw an update on Nathan on my friends wall.  Nathan was able to have his CT scan done at Mercy Ships and the news wasn't good.  It showed that the large facial tumor he has is inoperable due to it involving major blood vessels of his head and neck that they wouldn't be able to work around.  Nathan and his grandmother are already on their way back to the Democratic Republic of Congo.  To say I was disappointed would be an understatement, but as we all learn at a very early age, "Life isn't fair."  Our youth group is doing a study on using our lives to make a difference right now, and part of the lesson we did this last Monday was focusing on this very concept.  One of the things that stuck with me was something Max Lucado said about people being born in the wrong latitude...we are blessed with healthcare, opportunity, food and all these things mainly in part because of where we were born.  I could be the exact same person I am today, but if I was born in a slum in India or most parts of Africa, my life would look so much different - but from no "fault" of my own...I would be a victim of latitude.  Just a huge reminder to me of how truly blessed I am and its not something to take for granted.  But to take it a step further, not only should I be extremely grateful, but I also have a HUGE responsibility to do what I can for those who don't have the same blessings that I have.  Whether that be here for a homeless person or for a little 10 yr old boy half way around the world.  I will probably never hear anything else about Nathan, but I do know that he will be in my prayers that God would bring comfort and peace to him.  He has brought the other side of the world a little closer for me and although I may not understand why things ended the way they did, I do know its all in God's control.  Through this situation, I was able to be blessed by a few nurses that fought for this little guy and joined in prayer together that God's will would be done...and it was.  Thanks to all those who joined us in prayer...

1 John 3:17-18
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.