Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little."
- 2 Corinthians 8:13-15
Last Saturday we went hiking in the mountains. We set out at 9 AM with a few of our Haitian friends. Our friend Donald has been hiking quite a bit, so he was leading us. He told us our destination was about 2 hours away. After 2 1/2 hours of walking (mostly uphill) we started questioning him about the time it would take to reach our destination....."only 30 more minutes" he would say. Sometimes Haitian time and American time are two totally different things :) .....so when we had been hiking for 4 hours we decided we better head home or we weren't going to make it back before dark. We actually continued on in a loop so we got to see even more of the beautiful countryside. After a full 7 hours of strenuous hiking we arrived back home, grateful and tired.
The hiking crew :)
Beautiful mountains
More beautiful mountains
A school along the way
The whole time we were hiking I just kept thinking about how this was something we were doing for recreation and how it was an everyday life reality for so many people. Walking uphill, and not only walking, but carrying water or various other things....for miles. Just simply having enough water or food in a remote location like that is a very difficult task. Children have little or no access to education. Preventable diseases run rampant because there is no access to medical care. Floods or droughts ruin crops that are a family's only source of food.
I went to bed early that night because I was so tired by the time we got home. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. I decided I would read a couple of chapters in the book I'm reading and part of what I read I would like to share with you here.
Whenever a major jetliner crashes anywhere in the world, it inevitably sets off a worldwide media frenzy covering every aspect of the tragedy. I want you to imagine for a moment that you woke up this morning to the following headline: "One Hundred Jetliners Crash, Killing 26,500." Think of the pandemonium this would create across the world as heads of states, parliaments, and congresses convened to grapple with the nature and causes of this tragedy. Think about the avalanche of media coverage that it would ignite around the globe as reporters shared the shocking news and tried to communicate its implications for the world. Air travel would no doubt grind to a halt as governments shut down the airlines and panicked air travelers canceled their trips. The National Transportation Safety Board and perhaps the FBI, CIA, and local law enforcement agencies and their international equivalents would mobilize investigations and dedicate whatever manpower was required to understand what happened and to prevent it from happening again.
Now imagine that the very next day, one hundred more planes crashed--and one hundred more the next, and the next, and the next. It is unimaginable that something this terrible could ever happen.
But it did--and it does.
It happened today, and it happened yesterday. It wil happen again tomorrow. But there was no media coverage. No heads of state, parliaments, or congresses stopped what they were doing to address the crisis and no investigations were launched. Yet more than 26,500 children died yesterday of preventable causes related to their poverty, and it will happen again today and tomorrow and the day after that. Almost 10 million children will be dead in the course of a year. So why does the crash of a single plane dominate the front pages of newspapers across the world while the equivalent of one hundred planes filled with children crashing daily never reaches our ears? And even though we now have awareness, the access, and the ability to stop it, why have we chosen not to? Perhaps one reason is that these kids who are dying are not our kids; they're somebody else's.
--From "The Hole in Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns
It's so easy to push these children out of our minds because we don't personally know them. I think that it is so easy to live in our comfort zones and in our little bubbles......where all is right with the world and my life is all about me. But what if you were the mother who couldn't feed your children because you couldn't get a job....there are no jobs to get, but even if there were you have to carry water all day which leaves no time for anything else. Wouldn't you want someone to help you? This part of the book really challenged me....it really made me think about the way I spent my money when I had a paying job, about the way I use my resources now, and honestly about the way that it is sometimes easy to become immune to this pain even when living in a 3rd world country. Things that should never be normal or acceptable sometimes become so commonplace that it is hard to see them for what they truly are. I think the prayer "break my heart for what breaks yours, Lord" is so important and necessary not only in America but also in the developing world. It is only by His grace that we can be compassionate for others. God didn't put us on this earth to live life for ourselves. He blessed us so that we might bless others.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will about in every good work.
-2 Corinthians 9:8
John Piper puts it this way in "Desiring God":
Why does God bless us with abundance? So we can have enough to live on, and then use the rest for all manner of good works that alleviate spiritual and physical misery. Enough for us; abundance for others. The issue is not how much a person makes. Big industry and big salaries are a fact of our times, and they are not necessarily evil. The evil is in being deceived into thinking that a six-digit salary must be accompanied by a six-digit lifestyle. God has made us to be conduits of his grace. The danger is in thinking the conduit should be lined with gold. It shouldn't. Copper will do. Copper can carry unbelievable riches to others.
As I look back on 2013 I am so grateful for the many things God has taught me this year, but I know that I still have a lot to learn, and for that I am also grateful. I am looking forward to what He has in store for 2014 and am challenged to live my life more for Him and less for me.
Break my heart for the things that break yours, Lord.
