Recently
I finished reading a book that was highly recommended to me, called “The Hole in Our
Gospel”
by Richard Stearns, President of World Vision. The big questions of the book are “What
does God expect of us?” and “Is something missing from our understanding of the
gospel?” Stearns believes that there is a gaping hole in our gospel; a hole
that leaves the poor and suffering outside of the typical Christian’s life. He
says that we have simplified the gospel so much, that we have left out critical
portions relating to the poor and injustice. One quote from the book says, “In our evangelistic efforts to make the
good news accessible and simple to understand, we seem to have boiled it down
to a kind of ‘fire insurance’ that one can buy. Then, once the policy is in
effect, the sinner can go back to whatever life he was living—of wealth and
success, or of poverty and suffering.”
Stearns
tells a story of a friend who conducted an experiment. He went through the
entire Bible and cut out every passage and verse that dealt with the issues of
poverty, wealth, justice, and oppression. By the time he was finished, the book
was in tatters. His Bible was literally filled with holes. So whenever we as
Americans ignore those issues, we are living out a gospel filled with holes.
Throughout
the book, Stearns weaves in his own story of salvation and how he came to World
Vision. He had been the CEO of Lenox when he was asked to become a part of WV.
He was very resistant at first, and did not at ALL want to accept the position.
Eventually He surrendered to God’s clear calling, and continued to be convicted
about the way the American Church ignores the plight of millions who are
suffering around the world today.
I
really enjoyed reading his personal story, because in a way it felt similar to
my own surrender to God’s calling to build an orphanage in Haiti. I fought it
so long, but God has made it abundantly clear that this is what I’m called to
do. In order for God to use me—and you—we have to be surrendered to His will
for our lives.
The
third section of the book, called “A Hole in the World” was really eye-opening
to me. Stearns opens up the statistics of how many people die each day. Did you know that 26,500 children die of preventable causes every day? That would be
equivalent to about 100 jetliners crashing, killing all the passengers in one
day. The problem is, we read a statistic like that and barely pause. What if
one of those children was dying on your doorstep? Wouldn’t you drop everything
and rush them to an emergency room to see that their life was saved? How come
we virtually ignore the thousands of children dying every day simply because
they’re not on our doorstep?
Stearns
then unpacks some of the issues plaguing our world today such as hunger,
thirst, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS, illiteracy, slavery, and war. One
thing that struck me is the devastating cycles of poverty. People become sick
due to poor water and hygiene practices. They are unable to work due to their
illnesses. Obviously if they don’t work, they don’t have income. Because of
that they can’t afford medication, which keeps them in that cycle.
The
fourth part of the book is called “The Hole in the Church.” Here Stearns goes
back to scripture and unpacks just a few of the many passages dealing with
helping the poor as a reflection of our salvation in Christ. James 1:27 says, “Religion
that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after
orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by
the world.” And this verse is just one of
many where we are commanded to look after those in distress!
We
as Americans are far too obsessed with pursuing the American dream, and we turn
a deaf ear to those who are crying out for help. Matthew 25:41-45 says, “Then
He will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the
eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For
I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me
nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not
invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in
prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will
answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing
clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He
will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever
you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’”
The
final part of the book talks about repairing this hole we have created in the
gospel, a hole that was never intended to be there. We are commanded to use
whatever time, talents, and treasures God has blessed us with for HIS glory by
living out the ENTIRE gospel. There is a world out there that needs physical
and spiritual help. What are you going
to do about it?
