Lunch For Three - Day 13

Nooma 013|Rich
"There's a popular bumper sticker that reads "God Bless America," but hasn't America already been blessed? It's easy for us to fall into a mindset of viewing "our" world as "the" world, because it's all we generally see. We're constantly bombarded with images of the latest styles and models of everything, and it can easily leave us feeling like what we have isn't enough because we see people that have even more than us. But how does what we have compare to what most people in the world have? Maybe what we have is enough; maybe it's more than enough. Maybe God has blessed us with everything we have so we can bless and give to others."

Isn't it interesting how we view the world? We live in a country that is considered by most the center of the universe. And our lives represent this notion. Take a look at our maps of the world. The United States is always smack dab in the center of the map and on top of the world. Europe is off to our right side and Western Asia and Australia down to the left. In Australia they sell world maps that are very different. Their maps have Australia at the top and smack dab in the center of everything. Look at this map for a second. Can you even find the United States? It's all a matter of perspective. How we view the world is very different from how the rest of the world views the world. You may think that you are poor yet you live in a house and drive a car. Check out these statistics...

• The U.S. population accounts for about 6% of the world, yet we use 40% of the worlds resources.
  
• 92% of people in the world do not own a car. Between you and your family how many do you have?
• 1 billion people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water
• 800 million people, 300 million of them children, will not eat a meal today.
• 1 billion people in the world live on less than $1 a day
• To supply food and water to the entire world is would cost about $20 billion a year. This is less than we in the United States spend on ice cream in a year.

Some of those numbers are sickening. And we have the audacity to call ourselves poor or unfortunate. It's very dangerous when we start believing that our world is the world. It's not a bad thing that we enjoy what we have, but Christ has called us to do more than just enjoy our blessings. We were called to aid those who are in need. Whether it be food, water, money, or just time we should be selflessly giving what we have. Throughout my life my dad has taught me to be financially responsible. I always figured that these suggestions and lessons that he gave me were to assure my families financial stability for years to come, but that wasn't it at all. Recently we had a talk about finances and it came out that the real reason that he was teaching me to save and be responsible was because we never know what God is going to call us to do. If we ended up having a friend who was in need or being called into missions we would want to be financially stable enough to follow God's calling. We are called to be generous with all that we have.

"Let's be honest. It's easy to go to a church service, it's easy to read the Bible, it's easy to discuss who believes what and who's right and who's wrong. It's easy. But when Jesus talks about his followers, he talks about people who are generous, people who clothe the naked, take food to the hungry, take water to the thirsty, people who visit the prisoner, people who invite the stranger in, people who give their time, people who give their energy, people who give their money." Rob Bell. When face with a situation don't ask yourself, "what can I get?" Ask yourself "what can I give." For Jesus it's not about having everything, it's about being content. It's about taking hold of the life that is really life.

May you come to see that you're rich. And your possessions, they're luxuries that most people in the world don't have. And may you do what Jesus says, may you step into your divine responsibility to give, and when you do, may you take hold of the life that is truly life. - Rob Bell

Please, if you are interested I encourage you to participate and share your thoughts. I would love to get some feedback and hear what each of you took from the day's topic. Just click the comment button at the end of each blog and let me know what you think!