What Next?

It isn't that we don't have the food. We have so much we are growing obese with it. It isn't that the distance between the food and the hungry is too great, we casually fly half way round the world on holiday. It isn't that don't have the technology or logistics skills to transport it, we can mobilise whole nations for war. It isn't that we don't have the vaccines to prevent measles, or the nets to prevent malaria or the condoms to prevent the spread of Aids....

Have you noticed how many programmes there are based on sneering? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy 'Have I Got News For You', 'Mock The Week' and the like. It's just that every now and again, it goes too far, gets too much.We all agree with the stupidity of some other group. We feel better because others appear worse. We are right, others wrong. It's someone else's problem.

It's very easy to agree with general statements: the absurdity of people dying when we have plenty. We agree with the sentiment, feel good at having agreed with the general presumption that something must be done. By someone. It's especially convenient if the problem is patently too big for an individual to solve - it further absolves us from action. It's systemic, way beyond us, the government, other countries should do something. We can't be expected to. Be realistic, I have my own family to think about. I have a full time job, in any case, I already tithe, what do you expect me to do? Sell up, go and live with them? Anyway, it's their governments fault - corruption is rife. If they weren't fighting a civil war, there's be a chance...

Me thinks the Lady doth protest too much....

I think a just and loving God might be saying that to us what He said to Peter. Stop with the excuses, stop with the bravado. Cut to the chase. Do you love me more than these. More than these trappings of life. More than these others that you love. More than these other people you compare yourself with. More than life itself? If you do, you will feed my sheep. If you don't, stop pretending, at least be honest.

"But I haven't had a call to go there. I haven't a call to that kind of ministry." It's not good enough is it? If we saw a man drowning would we turn away, carry on with what we were doing, just because they didn't call out from the waves to us personally for help? What calling do we need to act compassionately?

'I can't' is not going to be an acceptable answer when we give account. Every person like us who said 'I can' will stand as a judge against us. The moment someone who has nothing gives from their poverty it demolishes the excuse 'I have nothing to give'. Every time someone who had everything to lose gives it up freely in the service of the poor it destroys our excuse 'I can't be expected to risk that'. Whenever someone with the same frailties and temptations as us does that which we have declared impossible, it converts our 'Can't' into the more truthful 'Won't'. On that judgment day, God with witnesses at His side will point to the poor who remained poor, the sick who remained sick, the starving who died and declare 'you chose to allow this'. No more will it be the impersonal face on the TV, no longer the theortical statistic. Instead it will be the resurrected individual we have to answer face to face. 'I decided my comfort, my future was more important than yours'


Jesus said that the way of life is narrow and few find it. Do we really think that a one-off intellectual or emotional response to God's offer of salvation will do if  followed by a life untouched by His life and unchanged from the world?

So what to do?

I invite your thoughts and comments.