As everyone prepares to wrap up things at work and makes last minute preparations for Christmas, I think it’s important to remember how lucky we all are. Recently, I was driving home after attending a Utah Jazz basketball game in downtown Salt Lake City. Both sides of the streets were lined with homeless people. It wasn’t exactly warm outside, yet hundreds, if not thousands of people were lined up to either sleep on the streets or find a way into homeless shelters. Earlier in the summer, I found myself driving home from a downtown meeting that went late into the night. Again, I was amazed to see how many people were sleeping in the grass medians that divided the north/south lanes of traffic.
This problem of poverty is not unique to Salt Lake City. I have seen it first hand in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, and so many other cities across our country. I have seen it in cities outside our country. Our world has many people who are struggling. For those of us who simply have a roof over our head and food in our homes, we have literally won life’s lottery.
Christmas is so commercialized. We see so much about the hottest tech items, different things that are given and received as presents. In all this, it is so easy to forget that there are so many people in our own cities that are struggling to just have a bed to sleep on at night.
This Christmas, I am thankful for so much that I’ve been blessed with. I often wish that I could do more to help eliminate the suffering that so many go through. No blog or article will solve the world’s problems and I know this. However, with awareness perhaps we can all do just a little more to help make a difference in the year ahead.
Merry Christmas to all who may read this! Have a safe and wonderful week!