12.3 million people around the world are trapped in forced labour (ILO).
24,000 children died today due to poverty.
72 million children of primary school age were not in school in 2005 (globalissues.org).
What does this mean?
To you. To me.
I live in relative comfort. I have a bed, a roof over my head, and food to eat. I have received an education that has allowed me to learn to read, write, and think.
And I'm assuming that most of you can relate. Most of my family and friends live in first world nations, and receive the benefits of living there. We complain about health care, taxes, and the fact that our politicians seem to never get anything done, but really, we have so much.
Have you ever watched a family member die of a curable disease? Have you ever thought about selling your child to put food on the table? Or worse to give them a better future? If you have, I'm sorry, but to most, these thoughts seem abhorrent. The reality is, the need to survive often causes us to ask questions that bridge on insanity, immorality, and desperation.
Poverty causes hopelessness. Poverty creates crisis among the most vulnerable.
What does this mean?
Poverty in a first world nation means soup kitchens and shelters... but consider a place where none of those exist. No one cares that people on the street are starving. No one sees the swollen bellies of young children as a miserable plight. No one cares that your child will suffer from a lack of education. No. One. Cares.
Consider a world far from your own. Consider the places you have never seen. Dare to see the world through the eyes of the hurting.
Shane Claiborne, author and ordinary radical, believes that the most dangerous place to live is in suburbia. And I'm beginning to believe him. He says, "We must neither get used to the darkness of human suffering or fall asleep in the comfort of the light" (The Irresistible Revolution). There is a balance.
As I am currently living in a very comfortable situation, I have found it is easy to forget that there are people suffering in this world. The men and women I encountered in Japan and Thailand, easily forgotten. Out of sight, out of mind.
Is this really how God wants us to live? Forgetting the most vulnerable in the midst of our lives? Dismissing those who could use our help? This is not an accusation, rather a question to consider, myself included. We get caught up in our lives... that must break God's heart. I don't believe that Jesus ever promised His disciples ease, comfort, or safety. Instead, Jesus said, this world will hate you because of me.
Does the world hate us? If not, are we doing our job?
Okay, I know what you're thinking, the world does NOT like Christians. True, the world may strongly dislike Christians, but is it really because of Jesus? Or is it because we are a poor representation of Him? Do they really dislike someone who came to love generously and pour compassion on every hurting person He came across? Or do they dislike the Christians they bump into along the way?
To be perfectly honest, people telling me, "Jesus loves you," doesn't do much for me. Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe that Jesus loves everyone, and that God created everyone equally, but telling someone that Jesus loves them doesn't mean anything when it isn't shown. Jesus rarely ever told anyone He came across that He loved them. He showed them His love. He never told them He would save them, He showed them the Father. He showed them how to love one another.
Jesus revolutionized this world through His love. And in a way, I think that is what He wants us to do too. I believe that God wants us to reflect and demonstrate His love for the world that He created. The people that He created. If that means I show love to people in a third world country, awesome. If that means that I show love to my next door neighbor, or roommate, that is awesome too.
The problem lies in the fact that loving people isn't safe, so most of us shy away from showing love to the people who might reject us. That is natural, because showing love isn't easy. Opening ourselves up to loving people often requires us to become vulnerable... and I hate vulnerability. It's scary, it leaves me open to getting hurt. However, if you think about it, isn't that what God did when He chose to love us? He opened Himself up to getting hurt, to being rejected. And let's face it, being rejected stinks, even if you are an all-powerful, supernatural being.
So what do we do? Do we take the risk of getting hurt and love people? Or do we act like none of this ever happened and go on with our lives? I can tell you which one is easier, but I can also tell you which one will transform your life.
Daily, I struggle with knowing how to love people the way that God loves them, seeing them through His eyes rather than mine. I screw up regularly, but I've been on the other side. I've seen others love me because Christ loved me first; they loved me when I didn't deserve it. They showed me Christ's love. So, maybe being a revolutionary of God's love isn't such a bad idea... you might just open the door to God changing their life and He will change yours in the process.
