"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness... you are
more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of
imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... you
are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest,
torture, or death...you are more blessed than three billion people in
the world.
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof
overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a
dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
If your parents are still alive and still married ... you are very
rare, even in the United States and Canada.
If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly
thankful..... you are blessed because the majority can, but most do
not.
I also came across these numbers. A former co-worker of mine, Betty, had these hanging by her desk and they have always haunted me:
If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100
people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would
look something like the following.
There would be
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would
be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer