Bono
“The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry. The garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of the one who is naked. The shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot. The money you keep locked away is the money of the poor. The acts of charity you do not perform are so much injustices you commit .” –St. Basil the Great
This quote that I just came across in an email from a church planter in the area really resonates with what I heard in our last session @ Summit featuring an interview between Bill Hybels and Bono.
In speaking of one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in history right now, (poverty and the AIDS epedemic), Bono asked this essential question:
“How, in a world of plenty, can people be starving to death?… If this is the ‘way of the world’, we have to overthrow this way of the world.”
This question hits me profoundly. HOW, with all our nation has, can people be starving to death?? HOW, with all the resources the CHURCH has, can people be starving to death?? How will we respond to the Lord of Heaven and Earth, Father to ALL PEOPLES OF THIS WORLD, the CREATOR, when He demands to know WHY we were sitting in comfort and excess and abundance while our neighbors were starving to death and dieing without hope of eternal life?
When Jake and I moved across town and realized how much STUFF we had, I cried and begged God to show me how we can use our excess to give to those in need.
Father, shake us out of this blindness. Let the scales fall from our eyes. Make us unsatisfied with comfort and things that we waste our time, energy, money on. Let us not live for ourselves, but die to ourselves every single morning. May we, may I, join You where You are working, and not wait until you have to beat us over the head with it. May we seek You on our knees as to how to best use our resources to lift You up and provide opportunities for people to come to know Your Healing Power. Let us not be fooled, (oh, how i am so often fooled…), by our DESIRE to change things, our DESIRE to provide food for the poor, medicine for the sick, clothes for the naked, shelter for the homeless. Desire is half the battle, but let us put our faith into action. Because faith, without action, is dead. Defeat the lies of the enemy in our hearts and in our minds. Help us to see the reality of the world. Show us our parts in this. Give us a holy discontent that burns inside of us like a fire, where we will be unable to do nothing. Like Jeremiah, who complained in anguish that those he was prophesing too hated him because of the harsh message he was told to proclaim…but then when he tried to be quiet, Your message BURNED WITHIN HIS SOUL….and he could not keep quiet. Father, raise up your prophets in this day in age…may they not keep quiet, no matter what people say to them, or how harsh the message may be to the hearers. Please let us shake off these chains that we are imprisoned to, and have no idea. Oh Father, please don’t leave us to our own desires. Ignite in us a passion to ACT, to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion-
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of mourning,
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”
…Dad, send me.
