I was on my way to work today in the early morning of Saturday. The sky was clear and the road from Okotoks to Calgary was a smooth ride. By the time I arrived at my work place it was very early as I always like to be first to arrive at work. I decided to park front of a local restaurant and have my breakfast when I started to have a mild knee ache and pain.

 I looked up from my window and asked God why he created pain in this earth? I am going to work and I am doing my best so give me some relieve. My tone was not kind.

I stayed in my car for a while and after few minutes I saw few seagulls eating from the garbage bin beside the restaurant. One of the seagulls fly and landed on the road beside my car and started to squaw I pull my lunch bag and started throwing some of my lunch to the bird then I noticed that this seagull has one of his leg broken and he was jumping on one leg , he was eating and enjoying his moments, and then he jumps on one leg until he was airborne .

I looked from the window and said sorry God. I should count my blessing, thank you for all your blessing. This bird has a broken leg and yet he is doing his best to fly and land, eat and go about his living and my mild knee ache is in no way bigger problem than his, I am sorry God for questioning you, with all your world problem of war hunger, starvation, illness, feeding every creature and yet you still have time for me, and send this bird to teach me a lesson.

I went to the restaurant had my breakfast and on my way out I bought a double large fries to take out. I throw all the fries around and kept few hoping that seagull with a broken leg will come again and in few seconds he was on the front of my car so close I gave him the rest of the fries, then I drove to my work.

People often ask why God allows trials. When we are in a trial, we want to know why. Why has this pain come upon us? Why me? We may even stay awake at night thinking about it, praying about it. While I was driving to work after I fed the seagulls I saw a blind man with his guide dog walking and exercising.I said to my self here we go another example I felt so ashamed asking God about my pain.

But have we ever considered why God allows blessings? We usually don’t lie awake at night wondering why God has allowed such a thing to happen to us. We act like it’s normal for God to give us a good life. We accept these blessings, sometimes give thanks, and enjoy them without a lot of further thought.

But we do not deserve blessings, so when they come, we ought to ask, Why? God doesn’t owe us anything. He has not promised us health and wealth. Yet every one of us has blessings, and we need to ask Lord, why has this happened to me?

It is easy for people to receive blessings and enjoy them for themselves. Ironically, though, blessings can distract us from God and into ourselves. But blessings are given to us so that we might produce more fruit, and if we don’t, there is a word of warning here. Blessings are a sign of God’s grace — his goodness to us even though we don’t deserve it — not a reward for good works. We need to use them in the way that God wants.

Grace is given to us so that we will bear fruit for God and for other people so that we might help others and become a blessing to others. Grace enables us to become a conduit of God’s love and grace and blessing to others. Just as he has loved us, we should also love others. Just as he has been forgiving toward us, we should be forgiving toward others. Just as he has been generous with us, we should be generous with others. When I ran away from the middle east I managed to work hard and struggle so I can send half my salary to my 6 sisters and 4 brothers to help them for almost 20 years until they graduated and got their life together after so many wars, famine, and destruction. God could choose some one else but he selected me and blessed me with other people in his mind. A blessing is helping others and sharing it.

Thank you for reading and may God bless you always.

Steve Ramsey, Calgary- Alberta – Canada.