I recently had the privilege of going on a Compassion International Vision Trip to El Salvador. We were able to visit several centers, see their various programs in action, interact with the kids being blessed by their sponsors, and even visit some of the local homes.
As we were invited to be guests at one particular home, where a single mother is raising a baby boy, I looked around the makeshift house constructed from odds and ends of sheet metal, the dirt floors, the outdoor dire that served as their stove, and was mystified as to why this woman seemed so content. I immediately thought, “Lord, how does one remain grateful in this situation?”
He replied, suddenly, “She is unencumbered.”
I didn’t really get it and brushed the words off as a random passing thought until someone pointed out they could hear rushing water. We were walked to a river behind their modest dwelling, and it hit me.
How content would I be without the excess of my world to sit by this river and read my Bible, or to fall asleep listening to the rushing water? How blessed would I feel to receive the education, job training, and food from Compassion, knowing full well God was providing for my every need just as I needed it?
But I stand in front of a full fridge and complain that there’s nothing to eat, I survey a closet brimming with outfits and declare that I have nothing to wear, and I gripe to God that my life is so difficult when the slightest inconvenience comes my way. I am far too burdened by the overabundance of the world I live in to even be able to readily identify the unbelievable number of blessings at my fingertips.
The people I met don’t even have a fraction of what I do, but instead, when someone asks, “How can you live like this?” they reply, “How can you not? God is so good.”
The unencumbered are the blessed and highly favored. May we all learn to be unencumbered.



