Are we just?

Before you go any further in this post you must know I'm NOT passing judgement on anyone.  I'm saying this because Erica's post spoke to me and I know I'm convicted of such.  Use this post as a means of learning about our lives and rethinking them.

We are a society obsessed with stuff.  We think we have a right to own more and more yet other's have so very little.  Erica shares my love of facts!  Here is some facts about our "American spending"-

American spending for 2009

$45 BILLION on their pets yearly. 

$14 BILLION on pornography a year. ($56 BILLION worldwide) 

$345 BILLION on clothes and shoes. Yes CLOTHES! 

Coffee is a $12 BILLION dollar a year industry! 

$15 BILLION a year on bottled water! 

$13 BILLION a year on plastic surgery.

Is anyone else picking their jaw up off of the floor?

I sit here and don't know what to say after looking over these statistics.  I believe they could be a post all by themselves.  Think about how much money a BILLION is.  We spend 15 BILLION dollars on bottled water.  BOTTLED WATER?!!!  Seriously?!  It is something that is basically free for us out of our taps.  We could be sending all that bottled water to those who do NOT have access to clean drinking water!  This makes me just want to go up to America and shake her silly!!!

More than half of our world lives on less than TWO dollars a day. 

Yes you read that correctly, less than 2 dollars.  

How many of us have that much or more in change in our cars?  We spend more on our pets than most have to even eat.  It's not like these people want an extra pair of underwear or that new pair of jeans.  They want to feed their children the one meal the will might get for the day.  

I am so convicted of this very thing.  It is extremely hard for me to look at my wants vs. needs the way American culture wants me to.  How is buying another toy for my son who has a room full or pair of flip flops to add to the collection a need when people across the world are hungry starving?

I am going to copy this straight from Erica.  I couldn't say it any better.

"Put yourself in another mothers place, imagine having to choose not between what cereal you'll feed your child but choosing WHICH of your children gets to eat today."

You go anywhere outside of the U.S. or even in some of the inner cities here IN America and you will see.

We need to help those who have none.  Jesus calls us to it.

"You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Luke 18:22

Social Justice.

rethink your needs . . . I know I am

love

anc