Who owns the pond?
Lately I have been thinking a lot about how messed up our world is, which one could spend a good portion of their lifetime thinking about. However, I feel determined to do something about it, in a small way, at least... Adam says that it doesn't matter what we do because the world's too big and everyone will die eventually anyway. Which is partially true, but, as Edmund Burke said, All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.
God calls us to give unrelentingly. Nobody lives by this-- I don't even live by this. But "ten percent" is an abstract number from one verse in the Bible. Tithing in Jesus' time didn't mean givin to your local church electric bill, it meant paying for the homeless to have dinner. But we don't even know who the homeless are anymore. I am so far removed from the homeless that I don't know who they are. I don't know a single homeless person myself. Which is really sad, because as a follower of Christ I should literally be dining with the homeless. I don't think this is a figurative command. Recently Indianapolis has decided to construct donation boxes to deter people from giving directly to panhandlers. Which is justified in a sense, and in another it further distances the classes in this country. In the book "Irresistable Revolution", the author talks about (and this is probably 3rd hand from another source I don't remember) the fishing metaphor, saying, if you give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, if you teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime. But eventually you have to ask, who owns the pond? In other words, as followers or Christ, or jsut as decent, knowledgable human beings, our first order of business should be to redistribute the wealth in our world and in our lives so that people don't go hungry. Everyone who lives in excess is guilty of contributing to the world poverty crisis. The second order of business should be to teach people to contribute themselves. Teach them to escapse the cycle of poverty and opression. But third, ask the question-- who owns the pond? Who is in charge of this system that we live in, and how can we change it?
I am just as guilty as the next person of falling so short of the people we NEED to become in order to make this world a functional and decent place for everyone. (Yes, I said need-- this is not an option, it is necessary for all of us to change our lives in order to save the lives of others) I pray for mercy. I ask for mercy every day for my lack of action and lack of understanding. For not doing more than the bare minimum, for feeling that my life is mine to claim. But now that I know this, I can't help but ask, who owns the pond? I don't feel "called" or whatever to go to Africa and hold AIDS babies. I feel that in order to change the world we must first change ourselves. We must make our government aware of the damage they are doing every single day to the global economy. We must make each other aware that we live in a "sick" system. I know that I've written more letters this year to government officials than I have in my whole life combined. There is a quiet, slow shifting in my heart taking place, and I can only hope that as long as I'm alive I'll continue to remember to ask-- who owns the pond??
God calls us to give unrelentingly. Nobody lives by this-- I don't even live by this. But "ten percent" is an abstract number from one verse in the Bible. Tithing in Jesus' time didn't mean givin to your local church electric bill, it meant paying for the homeless to have dinner. But we don't even know who the homeless are anymore. I am so far removed from the homeless that I don't know who they are. I don't know a single homeless person myself. Which is really sad, because as a follower of Christ I should literally be dining with the homeless. I don't think this is a figurative command. Recently Indianapolis has decided to construct donation boxes to deter people from giving directly to panhandlers. Which is justified in a sense, and in another it further distances the classes in this country. In the book "Irresistable Revolution", the author talks about (and this is probably 3rd hand from another source I don't remember) the fishing metaphor, saying, if you give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, if you teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime. But eventually you have to ask, who owns the pond? In other words, as followers or Christ, or jsut as decent, knowledgable human beings, our first order of business should be to redistribute the wealth in our world and in our lives so that people don't go hungry. Everyone who lives in excess is guilty of contributing to the world poverty crisis. The second order of business should be to teach people to contribute themselves. Teach them to escapse the cycle of poverty and opression. But third, ask the question-- who owns the pond? Who is in charge of this system that we live in, and how can we change it?
I am just as guilty as the next person of falling so short of the people we NEED to become in order to make this world a functional and decent place for everyone. (Yes, I said need-- this is not an option, it is necessary for all of us to change our lives in order to save the lives of others) I pray for mercy. I ask for mercy every day for my lack of action and lack of understanding. For not doing more than the bare minimum, for feeling that my life is mine to claim. But now that I know this, I can't help but ask, who owns the pond? I don't feel "called" or whatever to go to Africa and hold AIDS babies. I feel that in order to change the world we must first change ourselves. We must make our government aware of the damage they are doing every single day to the global economy. We must make each other aware that we live in a "sick" system. I know that I've written more letters this year to government officials than I have in my whole life combined. There is a quiet, slow shifting in my heart taking place, and I can only hope that as long as I'm alive I'll continue to remember to ask-- who owns the pond??