The other day, I was reading about an organization called A New Day Cambodia that helps to provide an education for "garbage dump kids" in Cambodia. It was started by a couple that was traveling in Cambodia, and their driver took them by a city dump where many children go to scavenge for things that they can recycle or sell. The photos are absolutely heartbreaking and my first instinct was to just close the web page. Too sad. Too heavy. But since there's a chance I might actually be at such a dump in Cambodia in a few months, I thought maybe I should prepare myself for what I might see there. It's unspeakable. Precious young children walking through the most disgusting of places, most barefoot, some carrying a naked baby sibling in one arm and a bag in the other for the scraps they find. They say that the kids make about $10-12 a month from their garbage findings and this is crucial to their family's survival.
I shed a few tears and said a quick prayer, closed my computer, and walked to the back door. I looked out into the yard where my children were playing. The yard where I'd really prefer for them to wear shoes, because you know, dirt and ants and such. The yard where they have soft grass and toys and safety and laughter. I was about to get dinner ready, and I had briefly wondered earlier in the day whether boxed mac and cheese was really a healthy enough side dish. I could hardly catch my breath nor stop the tears from falling as I stood there. In my mind I was screaming - nothing about this is fair! Nothing about this is right! Why should I be so blessed to have a roof over my head and a full pantry when babies are scrounging through a GARBAGE DUMP for a few dollars? It's all so broken. I know in the depths of my soul that God is good and right and perfect, but at times like this I wonder why he allows this broken mess to go on.
Then I wonder, are we doing something about this? I mean, really doing something? I know I am guilty of reading the stories and looking at the photos, wringing my hands a bit and then going back to life as usual. Why? Why do we so easily forget about them? Is it because we don't know where to start? Because we feel like our piddly efforts won't make a dent? That's nonsense. Stretching out our arms to the poor is not a special calling for a few, it's the work of every person who claims to follow Christ. If we say we love Jesus and want to be his disciple, we'll act like him, right? Well, what was he all about? Sacrifice and service, with an incredible heart for the poor and lowly.
Honestly and at the risk of ruffling feathers, I'm tired of hearing Christians talk about their hard-earned money and how they have the right to keep as much of it as they want and spend it on whatever they darn well please. A few hours after I looked at the dump photos, we turned on HGTV and some couple was giving a tour of their 27,000 square foot home (yes, you read that right). I had to leave the room. How has it come to this, that we live in such disgusting excess? It seems that every sermon that is preached about the poor, there is always that caveat "it's not that money itself is bad..." or "it's not that we can't enjoy nice things..." so that we can all walk away with our guilt eased a bit. I've said it myself before. But maybe it is bad, at least more than we're willing to admit most of the time. Maybe it's not right for us to install new granite countertops and then claim we don't have enough money left over for the poor. Maybe social justice and fair wages and feeding hungry children aren't concepts reserved for hippies or communists, but people who love Jesus and care about the things he cared about.
I don't say these things as someone who has it all down. We don't live in a shack or subsist on a diet of rice and beans so that we can give away half of our paycheck to the poor. It's very easy for me to draw a line somewhere above our standard of living and say "that's excessive". But I do want to shine a light on an area that I think is a huge blind spot for a lot of us. As David Platt says in Radical, maybe we need to shift our thinking from what can we spare? (which let's be honest, is usually not much) to what will it take? What could I give up so that a child can go to school instead of breathing in toxic fumes at a garbage dump? If I looked them in the eye and had to tell them "sorry, I really wanted Starbucks last week so I don't have any money for you today", would I make the same choices?
I found this recent article by Jen Hatmaker to be helpful in giving concrete ideas of where to start, if you're like me and get overwhelmed by all the options. (Skip down to the bottom half of the article, and she names some organizations that do great work like microfinance loans and child sponsorships.) I'm planning some small steps toward making a difference. I hope you will too. I know many of you are already doing amazing things for others in the name of Christ, and I thank you for your example.
"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything but I can do something, and that which I can do, by the grace of God I will do." - D.L. Moody
* I'm planning to write a follow-up to this about the other side of the equation (enjoying God's blessings, etc.), so if I stepped on any toes too hard, hang with me. :)
