Day 7 thoughts.

Day 7 thoughts.

I love seeing people come together and sacrifice some of their greatest pleasures for a great cause. You all are amazing people in my eyes. I know some of the advocates have gone through some really tough challenges with their mind, body, and soul and I just want to say, stay strong! You and your sponsors are the voices for the 14,000 kids that pass away everyday due to starvation. This is a blip on the screen of life for most of us; but, could be a child’s entire screen if you save their life by providing a meal.

I have been very blessed to only have had to deal with a couple issues back on day 3 when I believe my body was detoxing itself. I enjoy torturing myself though, so, when my college buddies were visiting this weekend, I took them to every food establishment I love. Wooo!! I know why dogs drool when you place food at within their reach but won’t let them have it. It blows my mind that I have never had to experience this before. I spent time in Haiti and Zimbabwe and although I was very limited in food, I didn’t have delicious meals in front of me to have to deal with.

What do we want in this world?? To be happy… not worry… those are just a few. Let’s see, money is not evil at all, it is amoral. Money is feeding these kids but money doesn’t buy happiness. It can buy fun, that is for sure; but, fun ends and then what? As a nation we spend billions upon billions trying to fill so many voids with instant gratification. Imagine if we spent a little more of that money on what makes us happy. I think true happiness is in loving God and helping others. . Mathew 22: 37-40 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 It really works, try to get upset after spending $25 dollars feeding 100 children, I dare you

Worry is something I want completely out of my life. As a nation we like to worry and worry a lot. I suppose the more you have in life the more you have to worry about. Hmmm… What if we embraced the idea: the more you have in your life, the more you feel blessed? Crazy idea – I know. One example would be school: I worried about tests when I should have been thankful I got to take these tests. I know there are many people that would love the opportunity to be in school and take my tests. Why worry about a scratch on your nice care when you should feel blessed to be able to afford that nice car. Why worry about a waiter or waitress messing up your meal when you should be thankful you get to enjoy that nice meal with your friends and family.

25inChange does a great job of making you think on a deep level about what is important in life. I really hope and pray this takes off so we can see our nation transformed. I will end this blog with some advice my father gave me, he said:

“Life is like a cross, composed of family, fun, spirituality, and work. Try and keep that cross as balanced as possible. At times life will take us away from a balanced cross, but always work on heading back to the balancing the cross.” He told me to try and keep that cross as balanced as possible. At times life will take us away from a balanced cross but always work on heading back to balancing the cross.”

~James Ahlschwede

4 Comments

  1. I’m glad you wrote this before I wrote my blog post. It definitely impacted it. You’re so money, you’re amoral.

  2. As I was reading this, I kept thinking about all the times an order is messed up at a restaurant and people yell at the server for the screw up. It’s funny how having a job as a server changes a person’s desire to want to be rude to people who mess up orders. They’ve been there, they can sympathize.

    • Andre I bet that is so true. Sometimes we have to be directly involved. I challenge you and others(myself included) to remember that feeling and apply it to all aspects of your life. People make mistakes everywhere and we need to show our patience, love and thankfulness in many situations just like we should to the waiter/waitress. I am glad the blog spoke to you,

  3. Super words of wisdom and insights James. And you are right the appreciation for the things we take for granted and the celebration of the simple things is something to be admired. Whenever I have spent time in a developing country — I have witnessed this and hold those individuals in awe as they are all inspiratons as you and you and team of advocates are. — Blessing to each one of you !