Caring isn't enough

Let me shatter a reality for you, my reader. A reality that has overtime been broken for myself. You have no rights, they are simply an invention of America.

Before you get all up in arms about blasphemous ways I want you to step back and be willing to listen. Please listen. I believe in the convicting truth of what I am about to say.

Its called ethnocentrism. You have probably heard about it before. Ethnocentrism is when one makes judgements on another's culture based on their own culture as the "correct way of living". The first step to accepting what I will tell you is dropping this thought process, understanding your a minority in the world, a speck in history, one idea in 7 billion, created by God yet fallen away, doomed to never get it completely right, "limited".

That being said, what is the reality of the world then? There are 925 million people in the world that are malnourished. There are millions of people dying in wars, genocides, of AIDs, diseases, and malnutrition. There are millions trapped as sex slaves, people are earning a next to nothing and certainly not enough to put food on a table but they continue to work 12 hour work days. Its not just around the world, its in our own backyard. There is toxic pollution affecting communities, people without jobs, children without parents, people without opportunity to become anything but the next "burden". In light of this can I really say that everyone should get an education, a home, a car, a meal, a friend, a wife, a dream, life. These aren't rights, they are privileges!

What does that mean though? It means that we need to pull out this American ideology by the roots and replace it with a heart after God! And don't even try to say they are the same or even similar. Christ didn't go around preaching inalienable rights. He gave up his own! I am asking you to look at the starving child from now on with compassion, not with the thought that he deserves something but that Christ loves that starving child so we MUST love him/her as well. Doing so authentically of course. If you don't know how, ask God for help ;)

I am asking a difficult thing, it is just as much a challenge to myself. I am asking to drop all selfish ambition. Please refer to Philippians 2. I am asking you to understand that going to school isn't your right, that living tomorrow isn't your right, that having a car isn't a right, that finding a beautiful husband or wife isn't a right, that accomplishing your dream isn't a right, that security isn't a right, that your salvation isn't a right. I am confident that wherever we go we are not called to horde our money "just in case" instead of using it generously and trusting it to the care of the Lord who is the great provider. I am confident that we are not called to find a secure job and raise a family then think about working for the kingdom of the Lord. I am asking that we do that now. Does that mean that we sell everything, grow a beard, eat locust, and fight evil? No, though you should not be surprised or indignant if indeed God decided thats what you should do. I am saying pursue the Lord, give up your rights to him. Don't wait to have a secure life before serving others. This is not a condemnation of the rich, rather a challenge to motives for all.

I realize I am just an ignorant youngster with high ambitions... I take that back, I don't realize that. Jesus had high ambitions for the world. He said radical things. He was an extremist for love as Martin Luther King Jr. would say. Are you claiming rights? I know I still am, but I am working hard to let go everyday. If I die tomorrow, I won't die alone. thousands if not millions will die around the world too. Who am I to say I deserve to live? Every breath is a chance to do good, how can I waste a moment? Not to say we should serve 24 hours a day either. God invented the sabbath for a reason and we need these in our daily lives.

"Shit, A million people around the world are dying of hunger, and all of you are more concerned that I said shit in church than that a million people are dying" - This was quoted by some pastor that my roommate told me about, I can't remember the name but it is an excellent insight into the church's problem. Lets get concerned about the big issues instead of our petty ones that satan uses to distract us from the needs of the marginalized. We are privileged with the knowledge to help, the resources to help, the time to help, and the GOD to help. So what are we waiting for? Lets not spend another moment spending it selfishly on ourselves! Let us become champions for Christ each day while actively giving up  our own rights for the sake of others, whom Christ came down and died for.