the end of poverty?

"Currently, more than eight million people around the world die each year because they are too poor to stay alive." -- Jeffrey D. Sachs "The End of Poverty"

What do you think when you read that statement? For me it was a startling realization of the absolute impact extreme poverty has on our world. In the United States, we don't often worry about literally being too poor to live. We do not face poverty knocking at, or even kicking in, our door every day, just as dangerous as any serial killer. We do not see millions dying of a disease which could be treated for $1 a day. ONE DOLLAR...most of us spend more than that on our daily cup of coffee. Because this is not a daily struggle in our nation, most do not grasp the gravity of the situation. Children, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers are dying simply because they were born in the wrong country, in the wrong circumstances. THAT should affect us. THAT should touch our hearts. THAT should open our eyes to injustice. And yet most of us will go on...unaffected. Why? Because we think there is nothing we can do, because the problem seems too big, because we don't feel we have the resources to help. But we are wrong! Jeffrey Sachs says it best: "The fight for the end of poverty is a fight that all of us must join in our own way." What is your role? That is a question you have to answer on your own, but one of the easiest and most valuable steps any of us can take is educating ourselves. The more we talk about this issue, the more we raise awareness... the more we give those in extreme poverty a voice that they do not have on their own. Helping those in extreme poverty is not about handouts or charity, it is about creating an environment and a society in which they have the opportunity to grow and prosper. The more I read and learn about this issue...the more and more it becomes my heart....and I think it is God's heart as well. Isaiah 58 says:
⁶ "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

¹¹ The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

God CARES about the oppressed. God CARES about those who live in poverty. God CARES about the hungry....do we?

In the words of Bono (who is much more articulate than I): We can be the generation that no longer accepts that an accident of latitude determines whether a child lives or dies -- but will we be that generation? Will we in the West realize our potential or will we sleep in the comfort of our affluence with apathy and indifference murmuring softly in our ears? Fifteen thousands people dying needlessly every day from AIDS, TB, and malaria. Mothers, fathers, teachers, farmers, nurses, mechanics, children. This is Africa's crisis. That it's not on the nightly news, that we do not treat this as an emergency -- that's our crisis."