Reflecting the world

My daily reflection time today (listen here)invites me to pay attention to the world rather than my own concerns.
This was a bit disturbing for me. I feel, sometimes, that the list of things about my personal life that I need God to pay attention to is long and complex enough without having to think about Palestine or Iraq!!
This is of course always the problem in terms of getting one's issues into perspective, we are all part of a larger whole.
I well rememeber my spiritual director saying to me "Only you could say that." After a particular time of difficulty we had been talking through various issues and I simply sighed and said "Well it's not as if I'm in Auschwitz!" He laughed, and shook me out of my self-indulgence a bit.
It's not that personal issues aren't important, most of us can only deal with the small stuff on our plate and are not going to be key players on the bigger stage.
So there is a bit of a challenge to be more expansive, to look beyond the back yard and (I suspect) that gives the back yard some proper perspective!