Ouch

This was originally posted on the Hope Hill blog, but I wanted to re-post it here as well. There are so many needs in the world, and those of us who have the ability to meet them, are called to take action. Christ demands obedience from those who claim to follow Him!

 

 

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”—Flannery O’Connor

 

Truth: Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related illness. ¹

Truth: Over 173,000 children in Haiti live as restaveks, otherwise known as child slaves.²

Truth: This plate of rice and beans is the only meal these children will eat today.

Truth: This 3-month-old baby will die from hydrocephalus if no one helps her.

Truth: This Haitian man is one of millions who live in spiritual (and in his case, physical) shackles because of Voodoo. ³

Truth: This is dinner.

Truth: I’ve seen walk-in closets bigger than this single Mom’s one-room house. She raises her three children in this single room, the only portion of her original house that didn’t collapse during the 2012 earthquake.

Truth: More than 80% of the world’s population live on less than $10 a day. ⁴ That’s not even enough to buy 2 specialty coffees at Starbucks.

Truth: There are over 143 million orphans in our world today. ⁵

Truth hurts. Some days, I am overwhelmed by the needs in our world. As I sit here in an air-conditioned house, with a full stomach, having taken a shower in clean water this morning, over 100 children have died because of preventable diseases. By the end of the day, more than 4,000 children will have died due to water-borne diseases.

 

Even though I can’t stomach that fact, that doesn’t change that it’s the truth. I can choose to ignore the truth. Or I can embrace the truths found in God’s word that tell me He is in control (Jeremiah 29:11), that He cares for every living thing on this earth (Luke 12:6-7), and that He will give me the strength to do what He has called me to do (Philippians 4:13.)

 

The truth hurts, but I can’t ignore it any longer. What about you? Will you choose to ignore the truth because you can’t stomach it? Or are you willing to experience the pain that comes with opening your eyes to see the truth? And are you willing to let that pain spur you on to action?

 

 

¹ http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/

 

² http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/18/us-quake-haiti-restaveks-idUSTRE61H3F920100218

 

³ http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/521.html

 

⁴ http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

 

⁵ http://www.unicef.org/sowc06/press/who.php