Last week the temperatures in the portion of Southern California where I live breached the 100 degree mark. I understand that this type of heat attack during the middle of spring was unusual even for Southern Cali. I loved it. But I also experienced the major downfall of this type of climate behavior when I realized that I could no longer cover myself with my fluffy down comforter at night without waking up the next morning in a sweaty mess. As I was pondering a solution to this “dire perplexity”, I considered blasting on the AC at night (despite the additional expense) so that I might once again have cause to reunite with my fluffy warm down comforter. Although I ultimately decided to “sweat it out” for the next couple of nights until the temperature dropped again and just open up my window in the mean time, I shared a chuckle with myself as I realized that despite the reality of living amidst a withering global economy many us will not be giving up our front row seats in the lap of luxury anytime soon.
However do not now brace your self for guilt trip. My purpose here is not at all to knock the pleasantries that accompany postmodern Western hemisphere living that many of us now enjoy. Nevertheless, shouldn’t we fortunate westerners as common members of the human race (and most particularly those of us that consider ourselves followers of Jesus) be ever seeking to relieve the suffering endured by the unfortunate members of our race who have feelings just like us and yet spend much of their existence battling disease while gasping for the basic necessities of survival?
If you’ve paid the slightest bit of attention to the news concerning the boiling economic crisis taking place in our country, you’ve heard and read how our government has felt compelled — even amidst a tight budget (i.e. billions of dollars in debt) — to bail out with billions of tax dollars banks, lenders, investors, and even automobile businesses. Many of the executives who managed these bailout beneficiaries are among the wealthiest in our wealthy nation. They are now in need of government intervention to stay afloat because many of them ran their company and their trade under a policy of greed and excess. It just makes laugh to watch how desperately greedy these cats are, who after having their greed and mismanagement exposed are yet not embarrassed to scramble for undeserving multi-million dollar bonuses despite being under the most intense public scrutiny. Who can say this global economic evil is not rooted in the love of money?
Notwithstanding, I think we (the grassroots citizens) could glean some principles for action from our government’s bailout response to this economic crisis by casting our vote for a new generation of “bailout bills”. While being on a tight “recession budget” we could yet allocate some of our funds to necessary bailout endeavors, but these bailouts will not serve the squandering opulent, but rather the desperately needy population, the majority of whom were dealt a bad hand in life to begin with and live from day to day seeing no way out. This new kind of “legislation” will be in line with the plan that our Divinely elected heavenly Commander-in-Cheif has outlined for lasting change 2,000 years ago. The foundational tenants of His plan reads “love your neighbor as yourself” and “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.
The video below is the latest proposal I have come across of such a “bill”. I first saw this presentation and met some of the medical students behind this idea a week ago while participation in a small conference on the campus of Loma Linda University. I was moved to say the least. Have a look:
Now more than ever is the admonition of the apostle relevant to us today. “Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Timothy 6:17-19). While we witness a weakening dollar, cash strapped banks, and the values of so many investments plummeting let us invest in endeavors which will pay off both in this present age and in the age to come. I hope in the future to continue to bring to our attention other fruitful and worthy projects that could use our help, so stay on the look out.
Click here to visit the LLU Haiti Mission Project website to learn more.