The World.

Having recently read Tuesdays With Morrie (finally), I'm going to write once a week, even if only briefly, on the topics mentioned in the book in an attempt to keep my blog posting regular, and to keep me thinking about things other than school and ...

The first Tuesday: The World.
Waterloo is a bubble, a haven away from reality. In Waterloo, students own, run, and are the world. All we see and complain about are our tuition rates, our midterms, our peers, our campus rec games, our exam schedules. The importance of global issues is muted, save for sporadic awareness events that clubs on campus will try to promote by putting up banners in the SLC. Due to spending most of my waking hours in the Optometry building, my world has seemed to shrink a little smaller. Yes, it is comfortable. But it is also disconcerting.
It's time to open these eyes back up, and see more than the here and now. It's time to have more to talk and think about than ocular diseases and TA's with weird hair and who said what to whom at last week's party (even though talking about all those things is quite fun). It's time to be concerned with the state of the world, and then to be earnest in praying for specific issues.
Last week's Bible study taken from Matthew really reminded me that I constantly underestimate the power of prayer on a large scale. It is easy to pray for my test marks or for my health, which I have a small role in controlling. Even praying for my mother's safety when she was in Africa last month required an ounce of faith I could barely muster. I can't imagine that my prayers would have an effect on world issues... or can I?


"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."