What Slavery in Brazil Teaches Me About Myself

This story was buried in the "World" section of CNN.com this weekend:

(CNN) -- Slavery may seem like a quaint notion in a 21st century world, but that distinction is lost on up to 40,000 Brazilians who find themselves toiling for no real wages and can't leave the distant work camps where they live.

Actually, I almost dismissed this story because it seems so small in comparison to genocide in Darfur and the Congo, child conscription in Burma, etc. 40,000 slaves. No big deal. Nothing to lose sleep over.

Here are a few of the things that have caused me significantly more stress in the past few days than slavery in Brazil (or genocide or child conscription for that matter):

1. My laptop will not boot up, and to save my data I must find some kind soul an Intel-based Mac who doesn't mind my dumping 23 G's of songs, videos, and photos onto his or her machine.


2. My two-year-old daughter is regressing in her potty training.


3. Alge Crumpler fumbled on the one-yard line.


4. I spent much of Saturday morning and afternoon cleaning the house. By Sunday evening my work had been undone entirely.

There you go. These are the sorts of things that bother me more than slavery and genocide. That's unacceptable.

Actually, I had two reasons for not dismissing the Brazilian slavery story. They were:

1. I thought I could use it in my Sunday school class.


2. I figured it would make good blogging material.

Obviously, my priorities are out of whack. This much was confirmed by this morning's Upper Room devotional. Pray for me. I have a lot of work to do.