72-hour Challenge / Day 3
by Reed on May.15, 2008, under Uncategorized
Just like Phil, I went to bed hungry last night. This morning is better, but I know once I eat my allotted portion of Cream of Wheat (15 cents/serving) that I’ll launch my stomach into hunger mode again. But it’s not all bad – my hunger has made me think.
I’m thinking about how true the comments of Cindy and Michael are. We are approximating the pain of hunger and then only for a few days. We are approximating the pain of severely limited resources and this again is only for a few days.
Why do this?
Because it opens my eyes – our eyes. It opens our eyes to the gap between the developed and the developing world, between our nation and others, between our families and families across the globe. Spin that globe you’ve got in your house or at school. C’mon, spin it. Close your eyes. Then put your finger down and if it ends up on land, it’s about a 50/50 chance that the people of that region eat like we’ve been eating for a couple of days now (that is, if they are at the top end of the bottom 50% of the world’s population – many eat more poorly than we’ve been eating).
It just isn’t right in a world with so many resources. We don’t have a resource problem, we’ve got a distribution problem. Charity won’t cut it given a problem this big, we need to work toward justice. Not only will the move from charity to justice fill the stomachs of the hungry, it will fill us as well (Matthew 5:6 NLT).
So let our offering this weekend at church mark not only our effort to alleviate the hunger of many across the world; let it be more! Let it also mark our continued commitment to work for justice here and abroad, in our nation and others, in our community, in Mhlosheni, and in more communities to come.
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I'm Reed Mueller, pastor of Columbia Ridge Community Church. Feel free to read what pops out of my head and onto the web, then join in the discussion if you want.
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May 15th, 2008 on 5:48 pm
Virg and I started the challenge one day late, so we’ve just reached the two-day mark. It’s amazing to me how good a bit of chicken mixed with rice can be (but I still detest the oatmeal and cream of wheat!). Yes, we’d still like seasoning but that reinforces how fortunate we are with our wide variety of available food — except during the challenge. One thing that I’ve noticed during the last two days is that I waste a lot of other things as I go about my day, such as water when I let it run until it’s hot. That,I’m sure, is a luxury most could not afford, if indeed they had water enough to heat up. Another thing I’ve noticed is that water fills me up, so I’ve been drinking a lot. I realize that I have fresh, clean water immediately available. How different life is here than in the developing countries. We are very blessed.
May 15th, 2008 on 5:50 pm
We also realized what it felt like to go to bed hungry! And some do it all the time….