Sharing, Even In Lean Times

¹⁰"What should we do then?" the crowd asked.

¹¹John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." Luke 3:10-11

Last night as I was driving home from church, the radio station I was listening to went to a little spot where a man from an organization in Africa talked for a little bit. I didn't catch the specifics, what organization he was from, or who he was, unfortunately. But he was talking about a great blessing that they were experiencing, specifically a delivery of food. He was so delighted and excited to share with the listeners that they had just received into their possession a large container holding 250,000 meals. He then shared about these meals. They were small containers, about the size of a Reader's Digest magazine, that held rice, vitamins, dried vegetables, minerals and seasonings, and you add water to it and one meal would feed six people. He couldn't wait to start distributing these meals to the people of Liberia, where he was. In addition, he was really excited to share that they had also received about four containers worth of dried beans, and they would be distributing those as well.

And as I listened to this man talk about how wonderful it was to receive these food items, and how he couldn't wait to share them with the hungry people who need it, I just felt horribly embarrassed I guess. Even though I was the only one in the van listening. When Andy is laid off, I really hold back when it comes to grocery shopping, I buy what we need, and a few things for the kids, but for us, it's bare bones shopping and cooking. Yet, when I look in my freezer and pantry, we could feed our family, if we really needed to, we could feed our family easily for a month, at least. It might not be the most tastiest food, or the biggest variety, but we could do it. And I thought about how, even though we are in our lean times, we are truly blessed in every way. We have more than we need, yet there are people in this world who literally have nothing.

I am reminded of a book I read not too long ago that I still think about. It was called "What The World Eats" and there were photos and dialogue with people from all around the world. I still think about that mother in Africa, who was taken with a photo of a week's worth of food for her family, and that week's worth of food was nothing more than a small bag of beans, some seasonings, and a few meager looking vegetables, oh, and I think some corn or wheat- some grain that they pulverize to make a rough bread. How is it, that in this day and age of technology and excess that there are still whole groups of people starving to death? That 250,000 meals in a container ship should be so much more than that.

And so this morning, I'm just praying for... an awareness I guess. An eye-opening to what truly is going on around me. I want those opportunities to share and give, but first they need to present themselves, and I need to see a solution. I can't share what we don't have, but I want to be able to share what we do have. So may God open my eyes to the need around me. May He provide opportunities to share His love, and may He open my eyes to what needs to be shared. We have so much, and so many have so little, and that's just not right.