India

I was one of those people with tears in my eyes when Oprah said she was going off the air.
I like to watch Oprah and it isn't really because I LOVE Oprah, it is more because Oprah has people on her show and I love people.
I like to learn about them and see what makes them tick. In another life I think it would be great to come back as the white version of Oprah. I like to ask questions and I love to have all of the information. I remember even as a speech pathologist I would love taking a person's history and finding out all the things that had ever been wrong with them. Then I would pour through their chart so that I could write my report with all of the significant moments recorded.
Mrs. O has her own network now which provides plenty of entertainment while I'm trying to pretend like I'm not torturing myself on the ellyptical.
On yesterday's Next Chapter she visited the Hindu Holy city of Vrindavan in Northern India where thousands of widows have been left to fend for themselves after being cast out of their families.

That alone is beyond tragic. But it gets worse.
They spend their days begging for food and being rewarded with one meager meal if they chant prayers six hours a day to their Hindu god that doesn't exist.
They do this hoping that when they are reincarnated they will perhaps come back and die before their next husbands.
So while I stare at my to do list and check off the things I have actually managed to get done today: grocery store, paint rusted freezer, workout, teach Julian, laundry, etc... I get to Bible study and prayer and I check it off because I have spent ten minutes memorizing and ten minutes reading the daily readings and maybe five minutes praying.
That is when I think of the widows.
Six hours a day chanting into thin air.
I wonder if they know there is a God who is real that hears prayers.
Then I wonder if I know.
Do I actually grasp the power of the lifeline gifted to me?
If I really understood the Savior of the world He wouldn't get checked off a to do list after 25 minutes.


Praying for the widows and for all of us that we would hold the magnificence of God close to our heart and value our access to Him as if it is the air we breathe.