October 30, 2008 | Seth Barnes | Poverty | 2 Comments | Views 0

Life on a garbage heap – where’s the outrage?

Poverty

By Seth Barnes

30 October 2008, 12:10 am

We who live on an average income of $40,000/year in America need a reality check from time to time. What is it like for the billions of people who live on less than $2/day? And what is our obligation to them? As Nouwen says, “The Church as the people of God can truly embody of the living Christ among us only when the poor remain its most treasured part. Care for the poor, therefore, is much more than Christian charity. It is the essence of being the body of Christ.”

Our girls on the World Race team “5 Alive” set out to answer that question in this powerful video of life in the dump in Cambodia. It’s situations like this that get me riled up. How is it that we can get so distracted by unimportant stuff when people have to live like this? Some of us need to ask God how he would have us respond.

How do you respond to this? What do we do?

Comments (2)

Carol C

October 30, 2008 at 10:40 am

Reply

You certainly go for the tough questions!!! When I look at this on a world scale, I feel utterly useless. So much need, it’s completely overwhelming.

So I go back to a principle I use whenever I give in ministry – made it my prayer every time I used to lead worship. My loaves and fishes prayer. Jesus, all I seem to have to offer feels like a couple of stale bread rolls and half a small tin of tuna, but I’m giving it all to You. Take it, break it and make it more. I can’t feed all the need in this room, in this town, in this world. But you can. You use what You want out of what I give and make it more, like You did in Galilee. And every time I pray that, He does. Even in worship, I can look around the room and see the most important thing happening in that room is what He is doing, not what I did. And that’s truly wonderful and truly liberating. He knows how to use what you offer.

It keeps the guilt away that paralyses action. It makes everything you have to offer available for the King but it doesn’t make you responsible for solving it all. That’s too heavy a burden to carry. As John Wimber used to say “I’m just change in His pocket. He can spend me any way He pleases.” I guess the trick is constantly making yourself available and asking Him what He requires from you.

“He has shown you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
Brand

October 19, 2022 at 11:17 am

Reply

This is absolutely heart breaking..God is doing a work in my life Seth. I’m more and more reviled each day by the relative excess that I posess relative to the rest of the world. I’m not sure what this means, but I cannot continue to live life as it has been, I have an overwhelming feeling that time is wasting.

Brandon