staggering reality

as i sit and allow the new coldplay album to flow through my ears, i begin to think about all of the places that i've seen God move, all of the places i've seen people experience God's healing by His Grace.

you'll find, if you haven't noticed already, that my heart gravitates toward the outcast. my heart and soul are pulled by a divine force to the people who spend their nights in bars and their days in offices pretending like all is well. i am pushed to people who would never step foot in a church, for whatever reason that may be. i grieve for those pushed into the margins by christians, so that it is easier for us to come home to our plush couches and huge tv screens to watch our favorite sitcom. i mention "christians" only in the previous sentence because i can't be upset with the lost for not helping the oppressed. christians are accountable for the widow and the orphans, as scripture would put it.

we can't blame the lost for acting like they are lost. it's funny how we get offended by the lost for the language they use, the gestures they make, the anger in their hearts. it's as if christians expect the lost to miraculously "get it" and act accordingly.

we (christians) are called to take care of the poor, the oppressed, the outcast. the oppressed doesn't have to mean "the homeless". the oppressed can be a 50 year old business man who makes 250K/year but struggles with depression and needs to be freed from that bondage. but oppression can also apply to the woman who has been addicted to cocaine for the past 10 years and somewhere along the way fell into prostitution to support her addiction.

the oppressed are the men and women who are held down by something whether it be poverty, addictions, depression, slavery, etc.

do we take care of these people who are not in a position to take care of themselves, whether it be by choice or circumstance?

many of us think that we can't make a difference on a large scale, but we can. let's just take a minute or two to grasp the reality of the oppressed and how we factor in...


a few statistics for you:

the amount of money americans spend on "black sunday" (the day after thanksgiving when all the sales are going on) could totally wipe out the world wide clean water epidemic. (ONE DAY!)

last year americans spent $455 billion during the holidays

americans spend approximately $12.4 billion on cosmetic procedures every year

wood consumption a day: world average -- 4lbs U.S. -- 14lbs.

80% of the world lives in substandard housing

New home size in sq. ft. :
Ireland -- 930
U.K. -- 815
Japan -- 1000
U.S. -- 2349

2 billion people in the world have no electricity

1 billion people in the world cannot sign their name

1% of people in the world own a computer

1% of poeple in the world have a college education

an estimated 22 million people died from preventable disease in 2001 -- 10 million were children

4 out of 5 american adults are high school graduates -- 1 out of 4 children worldwide have to go to work everyday instead of school

9.6 million people, including 3 million children go without meals - daily

33 million americans continue to live in households that did not have an adequate supply of food

over 41 billion pounds of food have been wasted this year

on average, american households waste 14% of their food purchases. 15% of that includes products still within their expiration date but never opened

the wealthiest 1 billion people in the world have an average income of approximately $70 a day -- 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day. 1 - 2 billion people live on less than $2 a day

the 3 wealthiest people in the world are American (this stat changes almost daily). their combined wealth exceeds the GNP of the world's least developed countries (over 600 million people)

12% of the world population uses 85% of its water

40% of the world lacks basic sanitation facilitation

1 billion people are without safe drinking water. americans consume 26 billion liters of BOTTLED water annually

Every 16 seconds somewhere in the world someone dies of hunger.

2 out of 3 americans are considered overwieight.

U.S.A GDP is 21.4% of the world capital.

americans spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half the world does on ALL goods

8% of people in the world own a car. 1/3 of american families own 3 cars

leading oil consumers in millions of barrels a day: U.S.A. 20, China 5.6, Japan 5.5

20 million barrels, if lined up in 1 gallon cans, would encircle the earth at the equator almost 6 times -- 147,000 miles of cans

the US accounts for 25% of global oil consumption. US has 3% of its reserves. in 2001 US imported 54% of its oil

2/3 of the worlds oil suppliers are in the Persian Gulf

in 2002, 20% of all oil imported in the US came from the Persian Gulf

US hold 42.8% of weapons worldwide. in 2002, the US spent more on defense than the next 18 biggest spendors combined

when asked about the these facts the government responded with this quote: "The American lifestyle is not up for negotiation."

my question for the body of believers everywhere is -- is it up to our local church, food bank, shelter, or soup kitchen to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the homeless?

or is it up to the body of Christ?

why are we waiting on a church "program" to get us involved?

i don't ask these questions or share these statistics with you to guilt you into feeling like you should do something. i give them because they shocked me and my heart grieves for my sins of not reaching out more and for the sins of my brothers and sisters in Christ who sit idly by doing nothing; waiting on a fun trendy missions weekend to help.

today my heart is saddened but joyful. i'm saddened by the blatant reality of the situation many people face. it was far greater than i imagined. i'm joyful because i know that Christ is revealing these things to me, to us, so that we might change the world.

we live in a consumer driven society and we must break ourselves from this cycle of spending almost all we are blessed with on us or things that benefit us.

we need to free our mind of our own selfish ambitions.

we must become selfless.

forget all that we've been taught to hold dear and give more than you ever have before.

if you've ever looked into the eyes of a homeless man, you'll never forget the desperation you see.

we need to be aware of the desperation of the world around us and realize that we must do more.

may God show you where to give more.

may God ask you to do things you never thought you would.

may God take your priorities and throw them into the wind so we realize that we are not in control of what we have.

may we see what it is like to give beyond the boundaries we set.

may we be the body of Christ in plain sight to the hopeless.