to share, or not to share...

I have really wrestled with this post, first written over a week ago - do I go public, or do I not go public? How do I say what God has put on my heart and mind to share?

First off, let me state a couple of things:
1. My intention with this post is purely to encourage each of you where you are at. It is not to cast judgment, or say "I have it all together" - because I don't.
2. This post has been a long time in the making. What I am sharing is a lot of "old" information to me. However, this time around, I got a kick in the pants and read the information through a filter of love and shame. What a difference that makes!

I just finished reading The Hole in our Gospel, written by World Vision US President , Rich Stearns. He is a pretty normal guy, like you and me. He worked hard to overcome his childhood poverty, and lived the American Dream, being CEO of several large American corporations (okay, not too much like me - lol). He had a wife who was a lawyer, 5 kids who went to private Christian school, a lovely home, a company car (a Jag)...and then came an invitation from World Vision US to become their president. Rich fought this invite for months, but then boiled down his decision to a much simpler one - was he going to obey God or disobey God? This might sound kind of hokey, but through many different situations and colleagues, he knew this is what God wanted him to do. Have you ever had a situation like that? I have. I could resonate with his struggle. I left my teaching career, and became a children's pastor (though his decision what MUCH bigger than mine). What did Rich do? He gave up a lot of his comforts, moved his family across the country, and the rest is history.

This book is a sharing of his learnings since becoming president of World Vision US. I spent many evenings, digesting a couple of pages, then weeping. It was heavy stuff. And like I said, I had "heard it all before". But something this time was different. Let me share a couple of things that really got me thinking:

1. "What if there are children who will suffer somehow because I failed to obey God? What if my cowardice costs even one child somewhere in the world his or her life?" (This tipped the scales for him in his decision-making process in becoming president of World Vision US). Make it personal. What if it were your child?
2. Melinda Gates: "The first reason to work to eradicate malaria is an ethical reason - the simple human cost. Every life has equal worth. Sickness and death in Africa are just as awful as sickness and death in America."
3. There is no "whole gospel" without compassion and justice shown to the poor. It's that simple.
4. Yes, the world we live in is corrupt and full of awful things. We are not to give up on the world, nor retreat from it - just the opposite. We are to reclaim and redeem the world for Christ's kingdom, HERE AND NOW!!!
5. More than 26500 kids die every day of preventable causes related to their poverty. That's the equivalent of 100 crashing jetliners...daily. Have you heard that on the news lately?
6. The Bible is clear from the Old Testament through the New that God's people have always had a responsbility to see that everyone in their society was cared for at a basic-needs level. We have the resources. They are just unequally distributed. IT IS OUR TASK TO DISTRIBUTE THEM EQUALLY.
7. Poverty is extremely complex (almost all is fundamentally the result of a lack of options).
8. Hunger - imagine the desparation of knowing there is no food today and likely none tomorrow for your family. So you spend every hour of your day obsessively devoted to the search for sustenance.  854 million people do not have enough food to sustain them. This makes it the number one risk to health globally - more than AIDS, malaria, and TB combined. 
9. Thirsty - now imagine having to walk to the nearest body of water to get the water you will need for the day. 30 gallons of water weighs 250 pounds. Rich's family uses 300 gallons a day. That would require 50 round trips for his family. Reducing to 30 gallons would be a 90% reduction, but carrying 30 gallons of water 2 miles would still take about 5 or 6 trips a day, carrying 50 pounds each time, consuming about 10 hours of hard labour. Now more sinister - imagine the water you fetched was teeming with deadly bacteria, parasites, and waterborne diseases. This is the grim reality for about 1.2 billion people. Thousands of hours are lost seeking and hauling water, especially by women. Millions of children can't attend school because of the hours they spend fetching water. If you take away water and sanitation, you take away my health and that of my children. If you take away my health, you have taken away my energy and my industry. If this happens, you have taken away my dignity. If this happens, you have taken away my hope - for the future, for my children, for a better life.
10. The wealthiest countries, where just one-fifth of the world's population resides, spend 90% of the world's health care dollars, allowing the remaining four-fifths of the planet to spend only 10% of the money.
11. Education is foundational to the development of a child, his or her community, and the entire nation, and no long-term escape from poverty is possible without the methodical and routine education of children - both boys and girls. 
12. The single most significant thing that can be done to cure extreme poverty is this: protect, educate, and nurture girls and women and provide them with equal rights and opportunities - educationally, economically, and socially. Women own less than 1% of the world's property. They also work two-thirds of all the world's labour hours, but earn just 10% of the world's wages.
13. War changes everything. The governments of the world spend $1.2 trillion (that's 12 hundred billion) on their militaries. 
14. Huge difference between entitled and entrusted. I am to be a steward of my resources, that aren't really mine.
15. I should be asking "how much do I keep", not "how much do I give away".
16. Am I willing?

Okay, that was obviously more than a couple of things, and I pared the list down. But here is the bottom line - if we are all truly equal, I can't keep living the way I have been. I have to advocate for the poor, the broken, the oppressed. I need to be mindful of every dollar I spend, since $1 can bring someone clean water and so many live on less than this each day. I have to open my eyes...and my heart. Everyone is someone's child.

Each day, when I wake up, I ask God to break my heart for the things that break His, to give me renewed focus and vigour. I spend a lot more time praying for orphans around the world, for the hungry, for the sick. We put some of our extra things on kijiji and are donating the proceeds to the famine in the Sahel through World Vision (the government is matching donations until September 30). I pared down our monthly budget and we have decreased how much we are investing in RRSPs each month. We will be eating a little more simply (still healthy), but buying minimal organic items (instead of mainly organic). One of our sponsored children lives in Mposa, and right now leaders in Mposa are putting together a list of their top priorities for their community, above and beyond what child sponsorship covers. We are planning to get involved in these fundraising endeavours. We are truly seeking God's direction in what He will have us do next. We are being intentional with the money that has been entrusted to us.

Are you willing? Do you really believe that all 6.7 billion on this planet are equal? Do you believe your purpose is to show compassion, mercy, justice, and to spread God's love? Then keep it up, or start. We can all make a difference. Do little things with great love.

Fighting the good fight (without the boxing gloves),
Tam