It's hard!

For some folks, it's automatically going to be a hard battle, one almost impossible to win.  Reaching the goal just isn't going to happen without extraordinarily difficult tasks, choices, and sacrifice.

Being rich apparently insulates us from reality, from the real world, from God's view of things and people, even from our own children.

This young fellow came to the teacher and asked what he needed to do to finish well.  He was told to love God and obey the rules.  The guy said he'd done all of that, and the teacher told him to prove it, but he couldn't or perhaps wouldn't.  His wealth and position, it seems, had tainted his thinking, his view of himself, his comfort and luxury and future. He couldn't bring himself to consider changing course to a better purpose.

It's hard, the teacher said, for a rich person to finish well. Really hard. Later, the teacher's friends were struggling to understand.  "If that rich fellow can't do it, how can we or anyone?"   There is a way, but it's perhaps not obvious once wealth and class obscure things.  

He meant what he said, I think.  And if I live in America, chances are I'm rich, maybe fifty times richer than most others in the world.  Is that a problem?   What do I not see, what have I missed?  How much of my life is spent on the wrong things?

And as for that kingdom he was talking about ... what are the chances the richest country in the world, a wealth-focused culture and economy, is headed in the right direction?  

If the path I'm on seems easy, it might need a critical review.   

Is the goal clear?

The Threshold for Participation

A poor person in the U.S. is richer than half of the folks in the world.  True or not?

Because there's more to the question, perhaps not actually true.

The more complex the economy, the more it costs you to live in it.  That cost is the threshold for participation and the cutoff for survival.

The conservative view here is that the poor live rather well compared to the rest of the world, so we needn't worry much about them.  The reality, the top quintile household income rose significantly in recent decades while the lowest made no progress or lost ground. 

There's more, if you want to know.

More than half of the world lives at low income.  Few have regular jobs.  Most survive by fishing or small plot farms and flocks, perhaps a little trade and selling on the street.  They walk to the river for water.  There may not be public transportation or stores or health care nearby.

As an economy grows, it updates those rivers and footpaths and gardens with municipal water systems, city streets, and grocery stores, but living there means you pay your share of the cost.  

In any economy, if your contribution falls below that threshold, you're disenfranchised or perhaps homeless and on the street along with your family, begging.

The poverty line in the U.S. is indeed middle-income compared to the whole world.  That's because basic participation in the economy costs much more than in India or sub-Saharan Africa.  Here, if you don't have a cell-phone and a vehicle, you'll not likely be able to hold a job.  If you don't have a computer and internet, you're kids will have difficulty getting an education, and you'll have difficulty keeping up with your bills and finances.  A good diet, health care, shoes and clothes, soap and toothpaste ... making your way forward requires the ability to participate in the economy in which you live.

The GAP - The more useful measure for this issue is inequality.  When the privileged extract wealth from the economy at the expense of the rest, the result is a widening gap, or inequality.  The flow of wealth from bottom to top fosters persistent corruption in business and government, and deprivation below.  That's within a single country or economy.

Globally, countries can face the same difficulties.  There's a threshold for a country's participation in the global economy.  Poorer countries struggle and extractive trade policies are deadly.  Western countries have extracted wealth from African countries for centuries, for example, resulting in a deadly inequality and extraordinary difficulties for countries and their people.

Progress goes disproportionately to the top of the economic pyramid.  At the bottom, millions fall below the threshold for survival every year.  

Do your own inquiry - Human Development, extractive economics, and the GAP

Or look at fair trade vs. free trade, archenemies in international politics and competitive economics.  If international trade is just a competitive sport, then workers being abused and destitute isn't a problem.
Then there's the question of minimum wage vs. fair wage vs. living wage.

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(Smallholder farms depend on family labor for food and income. There are 460 to 500 million smallholder farms that grow 80 percent of food consumed in low income countries.)

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Change Makers and Help Bringers  -- The rich world's troubles fill our headlines, yet a more important reality is the yawning gap between the world's haves and have-nots. The average American income is 50 times that of a typical Afghan and 100 times that of a Zimbabwean. Despite two centuries of economic growth, over a billion people remain in dire poverty. We've yet a long way to go.

Protest, issues and responses

Burning flags and draft cards, protests and demonstrations.

Disrespect? Or a call to the nation for change.         

Our military veterans have earned the respect of us all. In serving,
 they offer their lives to preserve the liberty and justice we so
cherish.  More than two million served in Vietnam.  They
served with courage and at great personal cost.  Then 
  and now, they deserve our deepest appreciation.
Those who sent us there, however, were
deceptive and unjustified in their
decisions.  They mislead us.

Protest is often disruptive. The war in Vietnam brought protests that included riots and flag burning, campus demonstrations and the death of innocents.  The protests were pointedly about the need for change.  Public response was divided much like today with many attacking the 'unpatriotic' voices.

We found it difficult to separate our loyalty to country from the issues being raised.  The Vietnam war felt like a choice we had all willingly made and that we needed to uphold, but it wasn't.

From a recent conversation,
"Today's uproar reminds me of the 60's and the response to anti-war protesters. It was becoming clear, the war was devastatingly wrong, based on misrepresentation and unethical decisions. Instead of hearing the message, however, many attacked the protesters. And some died, precious young lives ended.  

And then there were those fifty-eight thousand more who died on the battlefield, those hundreds of thousands injured, those thousands more who never got over the war, a million refugees, and the two million civilians who died.  

The protest was valid.  The truth behind the war was eventually acknowledged, but it's troubling and rarely discussed."

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Kaepernick and a few others take a knee in protest against modern discrimination, oppression, and death, whether at the hands of police or by prejudice and inequality, now entering its fourth generation.  It's a call to the nation for change.  

Public response today is divided with many attacking the 'unpatriotic' voices.  
The protest is valid.  The truth will perhaps eventually be acknowledged.

"Which is more troubling ...
- that a protester takes a knee during the anthem, or 
- that black teens have to be taught how to avoid being beaten or worse not if they get pulled over, but when."  

That's what the parents of black children do, did you know? (ref)(ref)(ref)(ref)(ref)

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Curious; read further.

Look up Jonny Gammage for a little insight into Kaepernick's concerns.  
Or Master Sergeant Rossano V. Gerald, or Philando Castile, or other examples.
See Harsh History for more on protest and reason.  
Or The Courage of Conviction.

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Our hope, perhaps, is that we would be a noble nation, understanding and slow to anger, not easily offended, not quick to judge or condemn, and wise in our decisions.  🤝

The Stunning Expression of ...

"We all know something's wrong.

At first I thought it was just me. Then I stood before twenty thousand Christian college students and asked, "How many of you have read the New Testament and wondered if we in the church are missing it?" When almost every hand went up, I felt comforted. At least I'm not crazy."   ~Francis Chan

The magnificent love of God has given us life and has commissioned us to be the light that shines in a troubled world.  We are to be the stunning expression of his love and grace, compassion and acceptance.  We are to be his voice, his hands, his open arms.

So what's life about, anyway?  Meaningful life consists of:                                                                                      Middle ground:                                                                                                          Meaningless life consists of:

Select from the following: loving, helping, understanding, teaching, defending, serving, movies, sitcoms, social media, sports, style, gossip, annoyance, grudges, reality shows, 40-hour week, wealth, luxury, winning, position, power, influence, reputation, and the last word

The chance of a lifetime!

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If you're looking  ...

Continuing Opportunity '17  Dealing with drought  '16      Nobody wants to go '15      Want a better use for your money?        Opportunity '14       Kenya's Need '12

First memory, first understanding

Not me; just a kid in the mud.

His first memory is of sitting in the front yard, playing with some toys in the mud.

The years that follow are fascinating.  He tells us his story ...

"I watch and learn, trying to find the rhythm of this world where I live.  I observe and cooperate.  I float along with the current.  I make a conscious effort to smile, nod, stand, and perform the millions of gestures that constitute life on Earth.  I assimilate the thoughts I'm given, study the actions and choices until they become reflexes.

Why am I here?  I know there's more; this world can't be all there is.

Finally, I remember that long letter from Dad.  It arrived years ago, and I only read a little of it; I was very young at the time and the letter is really long.  So I find in the letter that this world isn't my home, and it's not all there is.  It's just school and work, and my Father has laid out a long path ahead of me with good opportunities along the way.

Nuts.  Now I have to undo all that assimilating and cooperating.  I have to dump all the 'normal' thinking I've worked so hard to learn, and I have to learn skills this world doesn't teach if I'm going to graduate.

I had a brief view of the sun and the 'real' world the other day.  Seen from the classroom window, the curtains were back and the horizon was just visible in the distance.

Flooding it all was this blazing light that somehow filled out everything it touched.  Nothing soft and gentle about it, it was powerful enough to shake me to the core as I stood watching.  That's probably why the curtains aren't open all the time; we'd never get any work done."

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From Dad's letter - instructions

Whatever it was that he saw, it was not a gentle occasion.

The Courage of Conviction

The problem with having a conscience is that there's a price.

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A sixth-grader found an article in the library about cruelty to animals. She studied it through, how animals were treated by the food industry, how they were bred and raised for the slaughterhouse.  It troubled her; soon she made a choice and became a vegetarian.  There was a price.

She walked her path alone, mostly, with no such awareness among her friends.  She was teased regularly for her choice.  She became stronger as the days and years passed.  There were many choices about life and purpose that followed, every issue and personal value, each affected by conscience and courage.  As an adult now, her life reflects an unusual depth and breadth of character and conviction.  A healthy conscience will affect life-actions every day.  As it should, of course. Every day.

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Opinions and anger are common in conversation, but thoughtful life-change based on conscience is perhaps less so.  If you live according to personal convictions, it will include personal sacrifice.  Your life must change rather regularly, and the common pathway is not an option.

The world around us has changed over the years and without much thought, just humankind following appetites and desire for personal gain.  It's been doing that since the earliest times.  Most of us and our children have been carried along by change whether we noticed or not.

If, however, we choose to live guided by conscience, we'll find some interesting upheavals along the way to freedom.
- Clinging to wealth and luxury will change, perhaps to generosity and simplicity.
- Our focus on us (our in-crowd or race, our party or country) will expand to see more, perhaps all of humanity.
- Judging others will change to self-awareness, a real world-view, as justice rises above prejudice and preference.
- Oh, and learning will blossom, often fed by folks with opinions different than ours.
- There will be less anger and more laughing, more joy and fewer regrets.

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If anything about our life looks normal, perhaps it could benefit from another look.

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Dear Lord and Father of mankind,

Forgive our foolish ways!

Reclothe us in our rightful mind,

In purer lives Thy service find,

In deeper reverence, praise.