Austins in Thailand

I went for a walk in Seattle the other day. I walked through a neighborhood of houses, a few selling for $900,000. Then I shopped at Costco and wondered who was buying the enormous televisions for $2790. I also noticed that even duplexes in Seattle have three car garages for all the toys.

I contrast this with my last visit to Cambodia and Thailand. In Cambodia I talked at length with a young woman who was attending the university but hadn’t eaten for two days. In Thailand a few weeks ago I visited a village in the mountains with no healthcare or educational opportunities.

What’s going on here?

The Bible seems very clear to me in passages like Isaiah 58 and the entire book of I John that we have a responsibility, an obligation, a privilege to help all in need. Our ancestors in the faith like Francis of Assisi, John Wesley and Mother Teresa were models of Biblical Christianity. Scripture and true Christians of yesterday and today challenge us. It’s an uncomfortable challenge at times. But we can not ignore the challenge. We must have a response.

Every three seconds a child dies somewhere in the world from preventable illness and malnutrition. In one year that’s equal to more than the population of Michigan (about 10 million). There’s an increase of 80 million NEW slum dwellers every year –to add to the already 700 million.

The American church has a great opportunity. We can either take, use and abuse for our entertainment and pleasure, thus storing up no treasures in heaven or we can be Biblical, do the right thing and care for the poor wherever they may be found.

John Wesley had some good things to say about these issues: First, ultimately everything belongs to God; second, resources are placed in our care to use as God sees fit; third, God desires that we use these resources to meet our necessities; fourth, Spending resources on luxuries for ourselves while others remain in need is robbing God! Wesley challenged the people of his day, and ours as well, to embrace simplicity.

Here is the challenge for all of us: Can we all live more simply so others can simply live? Can we all live in balance? Can we obey the scriptures and live radical, free, blessed lives of sacrificial giving and change the world?