Another pondering ... Poverty ...

A man in rural Haiti was asked to define poverty.

This was his answer ...

"poverty is when you KNOW that NO matter how hard you work, you will NOT have enough food to feed your kids ..."

His answer has been on my mind all week ...

The reality is that I can't even begin to imagine what this kind of life would be like! I can't imagine what it would be like that no matter how hard Sam and I worked we would not have enough money to FEED our kids. My perspective and reality is that I honestly felt bad for my daughter when we could not afford ballet lessons (because I was on a maternity leave with Faith and Matteus). Ballet lessons for a 3 year old are being compared to not having enough food ... ballet lessons for a 3 year old are being compared to not having enough food ...

That reality leaves me feeling humbled and with a ache in my heart for the millions of children and/or families that go every day without EVEN having ONE full meal ... and it leaves me feeling blessed in a truly overwhelmed and undescribable way ... and it leaves me confused as to why our world is the way it is! Why is it, that when a comparison is made, that 95% of the world lives off of 5% of the incomes of America's upper-upper class (a statistic I remember from graduate school)! Although I am by no means upper class ... why is that I am so rich by wordly standards (my kids have an endless amount of food, too many toys to count, a nice painted and decorated room and house, ballet lessons, swimming lessons, soccer lessons, their own playset, and on and on) while children in Haiti and other countries die because they don't have enough food ...

(I am fully aware of the corrupt governments in other countries, of rebal groups and internal wars and their impact, of corrupt drug manufacturers and so forth ... so I am not looking for a logical explanation ... I am merely sharing another pondering and the way that I feel God is challenging me ... )