Is the weather affecting you?

"It's so hot.  I just can't stand the heat any longer."

In the last few weeks, I have heard this refrain over and over again.  Ya, ya - global warming.  But frankly, when I moved Phnom Penh in 1995 for a year, I heard this line from foreigners till it was like a broken record.  Granted, daily temperatures averaging 36-40 deg C is not exactly bearable, but the looks on the faces of the locals made me cringe even more.

I could see the poverty-stricken Khmer people saying to themselves, "Sure you can complain.  In a few days, you'll be going home to your comfortable homes and countries, but we have nowhere else to go.  Hot or not, we have to bear with it."  The incessant complaints of the foreigners who came "to serve the Khmer people and bring them the love of God in a tangible way" were demoralising the local people who did not know God or had even heard about Him.

When my pastor's wife said to me, "I'm going to brief the youth who are going to Phnom Penh next month.  What advice would you give them?"  My first and immediate answer was "Don't complain.  Your complaints demoralise and discourage the people."

Complaining is a sin and a disease that does improve anything.  It only makes you feel much worse than you already are.  Let's choose instead to forget about the heat and focus on the important - what am I here to do?  Let's do it!

We will never be able to change the weather, but we can always change our attitude.  Let's choose to be positive!