It's not unusual for Patty and me to turn off the air conditioner during the summer. Many summer days and evenings are lovely! (I actually feel sorry for folks who miss those days, because they refrigerate their houses 24/7.) Also, there's a theological reason for not using your air conditioner: one reason why many are blind to God's deep presence with us each moment is because they are disconnected from the natural world that God has created.

Anyway.

Last night we went to bed with the windows open. But we couldn't sleep. Even though the temperature was only in the low-70s, the humidity was just too oppressive. So I closed the windows and turned on the air conditioner. And do you know what happened?

Chilled air began flowing through the house!

What luxury! Indeed, most people in the world would think this: what unbelievable, inconceivable luxury -- that we can maintain a comfortable environment in our houses.

As I've been processing my trip to Tanzania, the greatest effect of the experience has been this: how we are surrounded by luxury that would be unimaginable for nearly everyone alive on the planet -- but that we take for granted.

Other examples. I've eaten enough food today so that I'm not hungry! What luxury, in global terms! In Tanzania, the average income is $1.00 a day. The average person (living in a mud and stick hut) eats once a day. The food is often ugali. It's much like grits that are cooked too much, so they are pasty and stuck together. It's eaten with one's fingers. The typical daily meal in Tanzania is ugali with some sort of sauce. Let Tanzania stand for most of the world's population, in terms of how well fed they are.

You and I are able to eat meat each day! In Tanzania, I ate meat each day. That's because we were fed as Americans, and that did make me uneasy after a while. The meat was usually chicken, with occasional beef. We ate fish, too, a couple of times. The fish was good, but the chicken and beef was hard to eat. It was tough and stringy. Why? Because the animals had lived "free range" (as we Americans so romantically call it), and had not been injected with all the chemicals that cause our meat to be so tender. Of course, there is great concern in our nation about the effect of those chemicals in our diet. But doing without them would take some getting used to! (For me, two weeks was not enough time.) So -- what luxury! Meat each day! Meat that is tender and juicy!

At the Shell station on Jamestown Road yesterday, a gallon of regular gasoline cost $4.04. How fortunate we are! In Tanzania, the cost of gas works out to be well over $7.00 per gallon.

Patty and I went to Brewster's one night last week. (It was neat to say "hello" to Joel Gillespie and Matt Sandridge, both of whom were working that night!) What a luxury was that visit to Brewster's! Refrigeration! (Ice cream is an extremely rare delicacy in Tanzania.) And I was struck by the luxury of being able to afford an ice cream cone that cost nearly five days' wages for a pastor in Tanzania.

Now. Is there anything wrong with air conditioning, and having enough food, and eating tender meat, and putting gasoline into our vehicles (which means that we own vehicles at all!), and getting an ice cream cone?

No, there's nothing wrong with any of those things...

... as long as we remember what unbelievable, inconceivable, unimaginable luxuries all of those things are for nearly everyone who lives on this planet.

We are surrounded by luxury. I would suggest that we respond to that with 1.) daily joyful thankfulness!; and, 2.) an openness to our opportunities to care for those who are poor.