Elias got sick last night. I hardly slept. Was running on fumes most the day due to lack of naps. Then just as I was crawling into bed got the dreaded phone call "ummm 3rd shifter hasn't shown up and isn't answering the phone." So here I am at work. Dead tired. Busy work is complete and I still have like 2 hours to go. So although I'm probably writing this sooner than ready, I need to do something productive.
This post has been weighing on my heart lately. I needed time to process it. I truthfully need MORE time but since I have nothing but time, I might as well a start now.
Earlier this spring, church did a series called a Hole In the Gospel based off the book. We were given a calendar which focused on different areas each week; they had calls of action, statics. I remember looking the calendar over and one date really hit me. Ok, it more than hit me. It literally rocked me to my core.
Those numbers are so staggering to me. 6000 children die.A.DAY because they don't have access to something as basic as clean water. The static bothered me. It made me uncomfortable. But to be completely honest here, not uncomfortable enough to do much more than post it on facebook (where I don't think one person even commented on it. Oddly though, if even ONE jumbo jet crashed, I'm sure it would be the most popular commonly posted topic that day). I wish I could say that I did something dramatic once I heard this news but short of turning off my faucet more often, I didn't do too much.
Fast Forward to the end of summer. One of the blogs I read mentioned the new book for their book club. I was in need of a new book, so I thought if the library had it available for my kindle, I'd join in. Believe it or not, for once, they did. I quickly put a hold on it and waited my turn.
Enter 7. Officially known as 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. A mouthful, isn't it? Let me tell you though ... it was as good as the title is long. Good enough that I've now read it twice. A quick run down of the book can be found by clicking on the link above. But let me say this book hit me about as hard as hearing 6000 children die a day from lack of water.
"How can I be socially responsible if unaware that I reside in the top percent of the wealth in the world? (You probably do too: Make $35000 a year? Top 4 percent. $50000? Top 1 percent.)
Excess has impaired perspective in America; we are the richest people on earth; praying to get richer. We are tangled in unmanageable debt while feeding the machine, because we feel entitled to more. What does it communicate when half the global population lives on less than $2 a day, and we can't manage a fulfilling life on twenty-five thousand times that amount. Fifty thousand times that amount.
It says we have too much, and it's ruining us."
I'm wrestling with what exactly it means for me and my house and my family. I know a change needs to happen. I know a change IS happening. I'm trying to decide how to make it happen. Expect more as I process this ... and I have a fixed computer that allows me to use the keyboard :)
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