I recently got back from a week vacation to Florida (well, it was recently when I started this blog, it’s been well over a month now). It was fantastic; a great break from reality, a chance to recharge the batteries and revel in God’s glorious creation!
Ft. Lauderdale and Key West were two towns that really stuck out to me. These are two gorgeous cities with rich histories. The weird part of both was the extreme presence of extravagance and the unmistakable reality of poverty. During our time in Key West, we were walking down the picturesque beaches with the ocean on one side and historical homes on the other. On this same beach were a half dozen homeless men. Some were talking, one man sleeping under a palm tree, and others simply gazing off into the distance. In Ft Lauderdale mere city blocks separated those living in abject poverty and those living in multi-million dollar homes with yachts that cost twice as much sitting out front.
It was a surreal reminder that even in destination cities there are men, women, and children suffering. I find it ironic that these two extremes could exist in such close proximity. How does a society allow for such an extreme distribution of wealth? Yet, even in this country, many considered to live below the poverty line are rich in comparison to so many around the world. Even those who make $10,830.00 per year (the 2009/2010 HHS poverty line for a single person) are still in the top 14% of wage earners in the world. That is out of over 6 billion people. Meaning that $10,830.00 is more than 5.2 billion people in the world will make this year. That’s a mind blowing stat to me. We have made wealth, prosperity, and the “American Dream” more important than Jesus and serving the least of these.
I’ve been reading a book for class by author Daniel Pink titled A Whole New Mind. There is a chapter called Abundance, Asia, and Automation. I was reading the part about Abundance and found some interesting stats:
- More than 2 out of 3 Americans own the homes in which they live (with some 13% of homes purchases being second homes)
- There are enough cars in America for everyone who can drive, to have a car to drive
- Self-storage has become a $17 billion dollar industry in the United States (larger than the movie industry)
- The US spends more on trash bags than ninety other countries spend on everything (that’s the ninety countries combined)
So, how do I live as a Christian in a world with so much abject poverty and so much concentrated wealth? How can I live in a world where a cup of coffee at $1.50 is more than 1.372 billion people live on every day? (worldhunger.org) How do I live in a world with 147 million orphans? How do I claim to be a follower of Christ, but am so unwilling to stand up for my faith by caring for the widows and orphans? How do I look Jesus in the face and answer the question: “What have you done for the least of these?”
I’m not a preacher and I’m not trying to preach to you. I’m asking myself hard questions today; I’m asking myself how I can face my creator after accumulating all of this “stuff” in my life that just takes up space and not feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or look after the orphans and widows. I’m praying that my heart will be rocked this week; that I can strip my life of all the waste in it and truly dig into what Jesus desires.
