I am blessed. I awoke this morning in my home, healthy and with food and water.

22,000+ victims of the cyclone in Myanmar did not wake up today. Tens of thousands more did wake up wondering if they could find food and water and perhaps contemplating if they’d ever have a home again.

To say that we take life for granted is an old refrain, but not only less true in the retelling. Tragedy is a wake-up call C.S. Lewis called pain God’s megaphone. Job struggled with why bad things happen to good people.

I just pulled a quote from John Eldredge’s new book Walking with God that says “Don’t waste your pain.” While we never seek nor welcome pain, we can at the very least learn from it.

The appropriate response to the pain of others is empathy and assistance. But we can even learn from their pain, or at least be reminded of lessons forgotten.

And one of those lessons is about the joy of waking up.

As I appreciate my blessings today, my prayers and thoughts are with those affected in Myanmar and for people everywhere who are hurting.