I Feel Guilty

I just got back from a trip up to a new Super Wal-Mart that just opened, and I have to say that I honestly felt guilty tonight when I was in the check-out line.  I felt guilty for buying a new blouse and two CD's, while tens of thousands of people down in Mississippi and Louisiana are without their homes and are in desperation right now. 

I saw a blouse in yesterday's sale papers that came with the Courier, and wanted to get to Wal-Mart and get the shirt to take on the upcoming trip to Memphis.  I tried on the shirt and then tossed it in the plastic basket and made my way to the electronics department of the store to get the two CD's that I wanted.  As I made my way to the check-out lines, an overwhelming feeling of guilt come over me.  I thought about all of the people on Mississippi and Louisiana that have been evacuated or are waiting to be evacuated, and I actually felt guilty for buying $35 worth of stuff that I really didn't need.  People were down in Mississippi and Louisiana, standing and laying in the flood waters and on rare pieces of dry pavement, with nothing more than the clothes on their back, and yet I was fortunate enough to be able to buy a cool shirt and some CD's with pocket change.  Something was wrong with this picture.  I tried hard to keep from getting misty-eyed as I stood there in the check-out line.  All I could think of was the elderly people - the ones that didn't survive the past few days, and the ones that were enduring hell on earth right now.  Yes, I have a major soft spot in my hard heart for the old people.  But as it was my turn to be checked out at the cashier, I promptly gave her my debit card for my shirt and CD's, took my receipt and went out to my car which happened to have a full tank of gas.  And as I started it up and pulled out of the parking lot, the guilty feeling hit again.

On the ten-minute trip home, I did alot of praying and thinking.  I came to the conclusion that God allows these things to happen to make the rest of us get into our thick heads that we really don't have it so bad after all.