CONTENTMENT

August 10, 2017

Suffocation . . . heat stroke . . . barbaric deaths for people packed into the back of a tractor-trailer in a Walmart parking lot just 90 minutes from my house. My heart sinks.

National headlines report ten people dead, and 17 more hospitalized. Two different kinds of desperation on a collision course–greed and hopelessness—end in tragedy.

Isn’t it interesting that both the victims and the criminals want a “better” life? But that begs the question of contentment, which means different things to different people. To me, it’s a life filled with love, meaning and purpose. I suspect most of the illegal immigrants in that trailer climbed in with hopes of work, wanting sustenance for their families back home. And the “coyote” who took their life savings and transported them to their deaths? Will more money bring the contentment he craves? At any cost?

While families already destitute and downtrodden hear the news and grieve, let’s all remember that only God gives us the peace and contentment we crave. He calls us to our better selves, corrects us and protects us. While the 24-hour news cycle means those names will be soon forgotten by the masses, we pause to remember that they were moms, dads, sons, daughters, and friends to someone. May they rest in peace.

-Julie Fairchild