Unusual, Any Way You Slice It

I'd like to start off with a cartoon from one of my favorite strips, Calving and Hobbes.

Since it's too big to imbed here, start off this blog by clicking here to view the strip.

So for the past few weeks at Take2, I've gotten to talk about something that's near and dear to my heart, and that's the idea that Christians must get outside of themselves and become agents of action in order that we might partner with God to bring heaven to Earth. I believe this means actively working to give up your life so that others will benefit.

We've been talking about one aspect of that: Global Poverty.

Take a gander at these stats, which I gathered from an organization called Global Issues.

Global Priorities in Spending - 1998
Basic education in the world = 6 Billion
Cosmetics in the United States = 8 Billion
Water and sanitation for everyone in the world = 9 Billion
Ice cream in Europe = 11 Billion
Reproductive health for all women in the world = 12 Billion
Perfumes in Europe and the United States = 12 Billion
Basic health and nutrition for the poorest 117 nations in the world = 13 Billion
Pet foods in Europe and the United States = 17 Billion
Business entertainment in Japan = 35 Billion
Cigarettes in Europe = 50 Billion
Alcoholic drinks in Europe = 105 Billion
Narcotics drugs in the world (estimated) = 400 Billion
Military spending in the world = 780 Billion

If you'd like, you can continue and read some other other facts and figures along with an annotated bibliography of sources for accuracy.

Here's the point: that's just messed up. And we can't change the world, but we can begin to make a dent somewhere. So as a community, we've been studying the Bible. The idea is to ask ourselves this question: Do God and I care about the same things? Ideally, we want that answer to be "Yes." So we started studying some passages from the Bible that I believe really reveal some of God's heart.

Proverbs 19:17
He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.

The implication here is that if you do something kind for someone else, it's the same as doing it to God. God here equates kindness toward each other as an expression of love...to Him. Which is jaw-dropping. Later, Jesus would say that whoever gave poor folks water or visited people in prison was doing it to Jesus himself. Even though they obviously weren't, Jesus said, "No, no. You help someone out that's in need, that's the same thing as helping me out."

1 John 3:17-19
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

I remember reading this verse with Jon and Jason last summer in our morning Bible study. I'm not sure there's a more direct statement about humanitarism in the Bible. John asks a rhetorical question, but I think the answer he's pointing at is that if your brother is in need, and you don't do something, then the love of God isn't in you. I don't know if this means you aren't "really" saved, or just that you're saved and a miserable human. But what committed Christ follower wants to be a giant jerk in whom the love of God resides not?

We also stepped through Deuteronomy 24:17-22 and Jesus' story of the sheep and the goats.

But the coolest part was hearing from actual people in our community who had gone on Missions Trips. Last week, Jenny and Jason Jones talked about their medical mission to Ghana, and how it changed them. One of the more striking images they showed was from the hospital. There's one doctor there for 180,000 people and the conditions are shocking. At one point, they showed a metal bowl on the floor with what looked like skinned plums resting in the bottom.

"Those are tumors the doctor removed," Jenny said, still clearly amazed at the methods and the lack of modern medical equipment.

Take2 was really impacted by the stories and pictures from Ghana that they heard. And at the end, Jason and I talked about partnering together with the parent organization World Vision International to buy a well for one of the local communities in Ghana.

Clean water is a giant issue for many of these isolated communities. And all it takes is an engineer and some pipe: they come in, clean out the area, jam a pipe down into the head of the spring about 50 feet underground so there's no contamination, and then cap it off with a pump. That's it. It costs about $5,000 dollars (roughly) to install a pump that will provide clean, safe drinking water for a community of about 5,000 people for 20 years.

So we made up cards that were called "Fast for Africa" in which we agreed to give up something for two weeks and in turn give that money to World Vision for the well. I passed out the cards last night, and had people consider what they might be willing to give up.

Take2's generosity astounded me. Nearly everyone in attendance decided to fast something. Many were simple stuff, like vending machine candy, fast food and Starbucks. It's amazing how quickly those daily items add up. Some people went further, giving up eating at restaurants for dates. One guy gave up smoking, which is good for several reasons. One person gave up movies. One girl gave up buying new clothes for two months.

In all, of the 74 people in attendance, people pledged $5,313.

Pastor Bill told me I could reasonably expect about 80 percent of that to actually come in, which is $4,250.40

And I haven't even contacted other people who told me "they want in."

Any way you slice it, that's a big number. And I'm enormously proud of people coming forth and being willing to give up something so that others might have. I think that speaks volumes about the character of the amazing young people and community I have the privelege of hanging around.

But more importantly, I feel good because together, we did something. I feel proud, not in a "I'm so great' kind of way, but in the same way I feel good making Nicole a suprise breakfast and setting the table with the good China. It's an act that I do because it's good to do it and I know it'll make her happy.

And I know that God is happy. And that's a really good feeling.