Connections

Whether it is the way I was taught and trained, or just the manner my brain is wired, I seem to make connections incessantly between faith and “real” life.

A simple recent example.  I was in my bathroom getting a drink of water before I retired for bed for the night.  The sink in my bathroom has a slow leak, and sometimes I place a plastic cup I brought back from a Florida spring training game underneath it just to determine how much water is wasted.  As I drank my glass of water, I remembered a conversation with a parishioner from a couple of days ago.  Her brother is a priest, a missionary in Ethiopia.  He has served there half his life.  She occasionally receives emails from him, and in his most recent post he told her about the severe draught his region of Ethiopia was experiencing.

And it hit me.  Here I am, unthinkingly drinking clean pure water from an indoor bathroom sink, and my brother in Christ (and his parishioners and many poor neighbors) halfway around the world are in danger of dying for less water than I waste in a night.

I think I’ll call the plumber tomorrow.  And pray for my brother in Ethiopia.