Rich Man's Problem

A few weeks ago, at the Mother/Daughter Bible study that our church did, Selma Wilson was sharing and she quoted our pastor, Pat Hood.  I don't remember what specifically she was referring to at the moment but the phrase she said and the explanation has stuck with me.

"It's a rich man's problem."

Huh?  I didn't quite get what she was saying and I guess we missed the Sunday where that came up.  Basically, a lot of the things that we think of as problems here in the United States, are very minor in relation to the problems that most of the world has.  No matter where you are on the economical scale here in the U.S., compared to the rest of the world, we have it pretty darn good, "rich" if you may.

The past few weeks/months/year has been a challenging one for me personally on many fronts - emotionally, spiritually, physically - but, if I was to be honest, most were "rich man's problems."

Some recent examples:

1.  Our roof over the patio is completely rotted and needs to be replaced.  This, of course, won't be covered by insurance and isn't going to be cheap.  It's frustrating because we have only been in this house for 3 months.  Compare that to many in the world that would be happy to have a roof over their heads, rotted or not, and, well, it's just not that big a deal.  It's a rich man's problem.

2.  Our washing machine is not working - again (don't buy a Maytag HE top load - ugh!).  This is the THIRD time in the past 3 years that we've had the same problem.  We'll be down for a week so this morning I took 7 loads of laundry to the laundromat.  Honestly, I got my laundry done WAY faster than if I had to do it one load at a time here at the house. And, again, I thought, rich man's problem.  I could be hauling my clothes to the local river and scrubbing them.  It's a blessing to even have clothes let alone clean one.

3.  My dental saga over the past year continues.  I spent 3.5 hours today in the dentist chair getting 2 root canals and 3 crowns done.  Can you say OUCH - physically & financially!  In light of those who don't have health insurance let alone medical care, this is pretty minor.  Another rich man's problem.

That one phrase and the wealth of meaning behind it have really served to change my perspective on the struggles of life.

Here in the United States (and many other countries), we are ALL RICH MEN.  Before you complain about your problems, put them in perspective.