The Hole in Our Gospel

What does God expect of us? That's one of the questions Richard Stearns asks (and faced himself) in his book, The Hole in Our Gospel. Once CEO of Lenox, Inc., Stearns now manages the helm of World Vision U.S. Through his work he has seen the suffering and injustice that many people face around the globe and has shared in the opportunity to relieve a small part of that burden. But there is so much more that could be done and that is the reason for this book.

Let's look for a moment at two simple statistics:

If your income is $25,000 a year you are wealthier than about 90% of the world's population. Almost half the people in the world live on less than $2 a day. Kind of changes your perspective. At least it did for me!

It's so easy to ignore the fact that so many are without basic necessities because it's not right in our back yard, staring us in the face. Let's look at water. We have fresh, clean, running water where many people in the world do not. They must carry buckets of water to survive, taking up much of their day. Many of these water carriers are children who might have the opportunity to attend school but just don't have the time or energy because their work is desperately needed for their family's survival. Imagine having to spend half your day just carrying water? And on top of that, the water probably isn't fit to consume anyway. Children die daily from waterborne illnesses carried in the buckets that they've labored to bring home to their families. Something so basic but so necessary for survival - do we even think twice about it when we're running the dishwasher or doing a load of laundry?

We can't ignore the suffering going on around the world but what can we do about it? The problem seems so great but we can make a difference - with our time, our talents or our money. Just imagine what the people in North America could do if each person who claimed to be a Christian gave 2% of their income to a relief organization? What sort of impact would that make? I encourage you to pick up a copy of The Hole in Our Gospel and discover what it is that you can do - no matter how small your contribution.

Have you ever heard the story about the beach full of starfish and one man walking along and randomly tossing them back into the sea. Another man asks him why he is bothering at all - there is certainly no way that he can save them all. The man tosses another starfish and replies, "It made a difference to that one." We have that same responsibility on a much larger scale. Maybe we can't save the world. Maybe we can't visit Africa on a missions trip. But we can do our part, no matter how small it might seem.