Letters, Letters Everywhere . . .

Perhaps it is just an "occupational hazard," but . . . ARE THERE MORE LETTERS IN THE WORLD THAN THERE USED TO BE???  Everywhere I turn I see l-e-t-t-e-r-s!  Now I know it is partly that I am living in a French-speaking country, and, as far as it appears to me, the French waste letters by putting them in words that are perfectly good without them!  But since I do not speak French, what do I know?

I remember how much fun it was to have small children in the 4-and-younger age group where you could still have a conversation with an adult by speaking AND SPELLING words, but I realize now that has backfired on us.  With the onslaught of  social media, our "once-spelled-in-front-of children" are getting their revenge - BIG TIME!  Just check out facebook and see how much communication takes place through letters that don't spell anything!  I consider myself pretty savvy;  I know that "LOL" = "laugh out loud," "JK" = "just kidding," and "BYU" = "Bob's your uncle" . . . no, wait . . . that comes from our Dutch friend, Sjoerd, and means "Then you're done!" or "See, it works!" However, I still cannot decode my granddaughter's messages on facebook!  Could there be a reason???

Recently I have learned of two more sets of letters (other than OIA = "only in Africa"), which have caused me some serious thought:  FWP and TWP.  Really, they stand for questions:  First World Problem? or Third World Problem?  (Thank you Jenny and Ruth for your thought-provoking creativity!)

Living in a "third world" country has its share of difficulties, especially for the people who claim this as their homeland;  for those of us from westernized cultures - not so much.  Yet we complain:  "Internet off AGAIN???"  "A mouse has eaten my tee-shirt!"  "How long will the power be out this time???"  "Rice or potatoes for dinner?"  "My refrigerator won't keep anything cold in this 110 F. weather!"  (So far, I only see FWP's: I have internet AND a computer to access it;  I have clothes to spare; We get electricity;  I have enough food to store some?  We have choices of what to eat, or do, or buy, or learn, or drive, or . . .)

What do TWP's  look like?  Malaria, typhoid, burned babies who die, and those who don't but have life-long disfigurement.  Crops with too little rain and trees cut down for cooking fires.  Schools where doors were stolen for shelter, and desktop wood was removed for firewood or to sell for income.

Women with too many children and too little food for them . . .

and so it could go for this country on the bottom rungs of the "human development index" . . . EXCEPT . . .

Except that God called many people here to make a difference - to be a (different kind of) "letter" from God to these people in such need here.  Like Paul says of the  Corinthian believers, "You show that you are a letter from Christ . . . written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, written not on tablets of stone, but on . . .  human hearts." (2 Corinthians 3:3)  Change has to be in God's time; obedience in ours.

Oh, and BTW - the new term is now "two-thirds world," rather than "third world," - just FYI.