Pushing Forward

This week was a struggle in perseverance. I'm fortunate to have begun a Bible study on James a few weeks ago, so the material is fresh. The problem with this kind of struggle is that it's all relative. I'm battling my own selfishness and lack of self-discipline made evident through my irritability, lack of patience, and little progress. But then I realize these battles are only against myself and fail to compare to the true test of perseverance experienced outside of the world's wealthiest few. Did you know:

26,000 children will die of starvation or preventable disease TODAY?

Close to 2 billion others live on less than $2 a day???

I pray the inconvenience of guilt plagues you every time you waste your money on useless crap. I pray the burden of this world cries out to you every single time you swipe that card for more shoes, coffee, blonde highlights, and Chick-fil-A.

I can wish this on you friend, because it almost paralyzes me. I can't spend a penny without considering these statistics and yet, we're still working through ten years of bad financial decisions and have to resist therapeutic shopping at Target each week. I'm not above or beyond this sin or this burden, so I can wish it on you too.

Harsh? Consider this:

North American Christians give 5 cents of every $100 earned to overseas missions.

Did you catch that? 5 cents!!!

Do you want to know what's wrong with the world today, folks?

It ain't Obama, Romney, MTV, McDonald's or video games.

It's that we don't care about anyone other than the big M-E.

The average American income is $42,409 making us the world's richest 2.5%.

Don't ya feel rich? Don't ya feel blessed? No? Could it be that mortgage, credit card payments, or new car your paying on? (That's what it is in the Watson household. I'm preaching at myself through personal conviction, y'all :)

We got a letter last week from a family in Ethiopia describing their life and home. They live in a wood and corrugated metal room. Room, friend. Mom, Dad, 6 year old Demie, and her 3 siblings live in this room. I hope you can imagine how reading that letter rocked my world as I sit in my comfy, cozy home paying my credit card bills.

Some of you are thinking "No way! My great-grandparents busted their tails and so did everyone else in my family to get us where we are today! I'll be danged if I'm gonna just give it away!" Friend, nothing that you or anyone else achieved was possible aside from the grace of God. It isn't yours! He can take it a whole lot quicker than you can make it, that's for sure. You'll cling to it all the way to the grave where you'll ROLL OVER when you see who it goes to after that last nail's put it.

All of my ranting and raging comes down to this: we blame the teachers for poor grades, technology for mislead youth, the church for a loss of morals, doctors forbad health choices, and the government for everything else. But what would happen if we actually modeled the behavior we want to see? What if we sat our kids down at the kitchen table to do their homework and limited their gadget time (and our own!)? What if we live out the morals the preacher teaches? What if we put down that fried goodness and diet coke and became active in the community? Well, that would require some major effort, wouldn't it? We might have to make some tough sacrifices, huh? Oh man, that might even require you to live a bit less selfishly!

So how does this relate to the 6,000 who die in Africa from AIDS each day? What does this have to do with the 1room hut and world poverty? It all comes down to who you want to be a slave to. Will you continue to see only yourself in this overwhelming sea of need or will you sacrifice more than 5 cents?